Gail Jones (born 1955) is an Australian novelist and academic.

Early life and career

Gail Jones was born in

Harvey, Western Australia Harvey is a town located in the South West of Western Australia along the South Western Highway, south of Perth, between Pinjarra and Bunbury. It has a population of 2,750. Harvey Town is known for its dairy industry and oranges. History Har ...

. She grew up in Broome and

Kalgoorlie Kalgoorlie is a city in the Goldfields–Esperance region of Western Australia, located east-northeast of Perth at the end of the Great Eastern Highway. It is sometimes referred to as Kalgoorlie–Boulder, as the surrounding urban area includ ...

. She studied fine arts briefly at the

University of Melbourne The University of Melbourne is a public research university located in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1853, it is Australia's second oldest university and the oldest in Victoria. Its main campus is located in Parkville, an inner suburb nor ...

before returning to Western Australia where she took her undergraduate degree and PhD from the

University of Western Australia The University of Western Australia (UWA) is a public research university in the Australian state of Western Australia. The university's main campus is in Perth, the state capital, with a secondary campus in Albany, Western Australia, Albany an ...

in 1994. Her thesis was on ''Mimesis and alterity : postcolonialism, ethnography and the representation of racial 'others'.'' She is currently Professor of Writing in the Writing and Society Research School at the

Western Sydney University Western Sydney University, formerly the University of Western Sydney, is an Australian multi-campus university in the Greater Western region of Sydney, Australia. The university in its current form was founded in 1989 as a federated network ...

. Jones has also contributed content for an art exhibition, ''The floating world'' by Jo Darbyshire (2009). Since 2017 Jones has been involved in a research project Other Worlds: Forms of 'World Literature', for which she is leading a theme titled 'Form as Encounter' that is exploring intercultural intersections and encounters.

Published works

Novels

*''

Black Mirror ''Black Mirror'' is a British anthology television series created by Charlie Brooker. Individual episodes explore a diversity of genres, but most are set in near-future dystopias with science fiction technology—a type of speculative fictio ...

'' (2002) *''

Sixty Lights ''Sixty Lights'' is a 2004 novel by Australian author Gail Jones. Themes The novel explores the themes of the family relationships, marriage, death and loss. Dedication "For my brothers, Peter and Kevin Jones." Awards *Booker Prize, 2004: lo ...

'' (2004) *'' Dreams of Speaking'' (2006) *'' Sorry'' (2007) *'' Five Bells'' (2011) *'' A Guide to Berlin'' (2015) *''

The Death of Noah Glass ''The Death of Noah Glass'' (2018) is a novel by Australian author Gail Jones. Plot summary ''The Death of Noah Glass'' concerns three main characters: the eponymous Noah Glass and his children Evie and Martin. Noah has been found dead face do ...

'' (2018) *''Our Shadows'' (2020)

Short story collections

*''The House of Breathing'' (1992) *''Fetish Lives'' (1997)

Critical works

* Dorothy Green Memorial Lectur
Gail Jones, 'A Dreaming, a Sauntering: re-imagining critical paradigms' ''JASAL'' 5 (2006)
*''

The Piano ''The Piano'' is a 1993 historical drama, period drama film written and directed by Jane Campion. Starring Holly Hunter, Harvey Keitel, Sam Neill, and Anna Paquin in her first major acting role, the film focuses on a Elective mutism, mute Scott ...

'' (Australian Screen Classics), Currency Press (2007) These works have been widely translated. The languages include Italian, German, French, Dutch, Portuguese, Spanish, Hebrew, Mandarin, Polish, Croatian and Czech.

Awards

''The House of Breathing'' *

Western Australian Premier's Book Awards The Western Australian Premier's Book Awards is an annual book award provided by the Government of Western Australia, and managed by the State Library of Western Australia. History and format Annual literary awards were inaugurated by the Wes ...

, Fiction winner 1993 *

FAW Barbara Ramsden Award The Barbara Ramsden Award was administered by Fellowship of Australian Writers and awarded annually to an author and editor in recognition of the efforts of both parties to produce a quality fiction or non-fiction book. The winners receive a memo ...

Book of the Year, 1992 * T. A. G. Hungerford Award for an unpublished work of Fiction by a Western Australian Writer, 1991 * Steele Rudd Award 1993 ''Fetish Lives'' *

, Fiction joint-winner and Premier's Prize joint-winner 1997 ''Black Mirror'' *

Nita Kibble Literary Award The Kibble Literary Awards comprise two awards—the Nita B Kibble Literary Award, which recognises the work of an established Australian female writer, and the Dobbie Literary Award, which is for a first published work by a female writer. The Awar ...

, 2003 *

, Fiction winner 2002 *Shortlisted Age Book of the Year Award 2003 *Shortlisted Brisbane Courier Mail Book of the Year 2003 *Longlist

International Dublin Literary Award The International Dublin Literary Award ( ga, Duais Liteartha Idirnáisiúnta Bhaile Átha Chliath), established as the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award in 1996, is presented each year for a novel written or translated into English. ...

2003 ''Sixty Lights'' *

, Fiction winner and Premier's Prize 2004 *

South Australian Premier's Awards The Adelaide Festival Awards for Literature comprise a group of biennially-granted literary awards established in 1986 by the Government of South Australia, announced during Adelaide Writers' Week, as part of the Adelaide Festival. The awards i ...

, winner, 2006 *

ALS Gold Medal The Australian Literature Society Gold Medal (ALS Gold Medal) is awarded annually by the Association for the Study of Australian Literature for "an outstanding literary work in the preceding calendar year." From 1928 to 1974 it was awarded by the ...

, 2005 * The Age Book of the Year Fiction Award, winner, 2005 * Shortlist

Miles Franklin Award The Miles Franklin Literary Award is an annual literary prize awarded to "a novel which is of the highest literary merit and presents Australian life in any of its phases". The award was set up according to the will of Miles Franklin (1879–195 ...

2005 * Shortlist Commonwealth Writers Award Pacific Region 2005 * Shortlist NSW Premier's Fiction Award 2005 * Shortlist Victorian Premier's Fiction Award 2005 * Longlist

2006 * Longlist

Booker Prize The Booker Prize, formerly known as the Booker Prize for Fiction (1969–2001) and the Man Booker Prize (2002–2019), is a Literary award, literary prize awarded each year for the best novel written in English and published in the United King ...

(2004) ''Dreams of Speaking'' * Longlisted for Orange Prize (UK) 2006 * Shortlisted for Queensland Premiers' Prize 2006 * Shortlisted for

, 2007 * Shortlisted for NSW Premier's Prize 2007 * Shortlisted for Brisbane Courier Mail Book of the Year 2007 * Shortlisted for the

, 2008 ''Sorry'' * Shortlisted for

, 2008 * Shortlisted for

Prime Minister's Literary Awards The Australian Prime Minister's Literary Awards (PMLA) were announced at the end of 2007 by the incoming First Rudd ministry following the 2007 election. They are administered by the Minister for the Arts. *Shortlisted for Nita Kibble Award 2008 *Shortlisted for SA Premiers Fiction Prize 2008 *Shortlisted for Victorian Premier's Award 2008 *Longlisted for Orange Prize (UK) 2008 *Shortlisted for Prix Femina Etranger (France) 2008 ''Five Bells'' *

, winner, 2012 *People's Choice Award, NSW Premier's Literary Awards, winner, 2012 *Longlisted for

, 2012 ''A Guide to Berlin'' *

Colin Roderick Award The Colin Roderick Award is presented annually by the Foundation for Australian Literary Studies at Queensland's James Cook University for "the best book published in Australia which deals with any aspect of Australian life". It was first presented ...

, Winner, 2015 * Shortlisted for NSW Premier's Literary Awards, 2015 * Longlisted for the

Stella Prize The Stella Prize is an Australian annual literary award established in 2013 for writing by Australian women in all genres, worth $50,000. It was originally proposed by Australian women writers and publishers in 2011, modelled on the UK's Baileys W ...

, 2016 ''The Death of Noah Glass'' * Shortlisted for the Victorian Premier's Prize for Fiction, 2019 * Longlisted for the

, 2019 * Shortlisted for the

, 2019 *

Prime Minister's Literary Awards The Australian Prime Minister's Literary Awards (PMLA) were announced at the end of 2007 by the incoming First Rudd ministry following the 2007 election. They are administered by the Minister for the Arts.Voss Literary Prize The Voss Literary Prize is an annual award named in honour of historian Vivian Robert de Vaux Voss (1930–1963). It is awarded to the best novel published in the previous year and is managed and judged by the Australian University Heads of Engli ...

, 2019 * Adelaide Festival Awards for Literature, 2020, Fiction Award ''Our Shadows'' *Shortlisted for the Victorian Premier's Prize for Fiction, 2021 *Longlisted for the Miles Franklin Award, 2021 *Shortlisted for the Voss Literary Prize, 2021

Personal life

Jones has a daughter,

Kyra Giorgi Kyra Giorgi (born 1977) is an Australian author and historian. Early life and career Kyra Giorgi was born in Perth Western Australia—her mother is the novelist Gail Jones. Giorgi took her PhD in history from La Trobe University in 2012 with ...

, who is also a writer.

References

External links

Gail Jones at Random House Australia

''Knowledge (A machine-readable transcription)'' (1992)
University of Western Australia Library, File ID: jones001

State Library of Western Australia (Retrieved 11 August 2007)
Lyn Jacobs 'Gail Jones' "light writing": Memory and the Photo-graph' ''JASAL'' 5 (2006)

Paul Genoni 'Art is the Windowpane' : Novels of Australian Women and Modernism in Inter-war Europe' ''JASAL'' 3 (2004)

Tanya Dalziell 'An Ethics of Mourning: Gail Jones's ''Black Mirror'' ' ''JASAL'' 4 (2005)

Robert Dixon 'Ghosts in the Machine: Modernity and the Unmodern in Gail Jones's ''Dreams of Speaking'' ' JASAL 8 (2008)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jones, Gail 1955 births 21st-century Australian novelists Australian women short story writers Australian women novelists Living people People from Harvey, Western Australia Writers from Western Australia Academic staff of Western Sydney University ALS Gold Medal winners 21st-century Australian women writers 21st-century Australian short story writers University of Western Australia alumni