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Helen Garner (née Ford, born 7 November 1942) is an Australian novelist, short-story writer, screenwriter and journalist. Garner's first novel, '' Monkey Grip'', published in 1977, immediately established her as an original voice on the Australian literary scene—it is now widely considered a classic. She has a reputation for incorporating and adapting her personal experiences in her fiction, something that has brought her widespread attention, particularly with her novels, ''Monkey Grip'' and '' The Spare Room'' (2008). Throughout her career, Garner has written both fiction and non-fiction. She attracted controversy with her book '' The First Stone'' (1995) about a sexual-harassment scandal in a university college. She has also written for film and theatre, and has consistently won awards for her work, including the
Walkley Award The annual Walkley Awards are presented in Australia to recognise and reward excellence in journalism. They cover all media including print, television, documentary, radio, photographic and online media. The Gold Walkley is the highest prize and ...
for a 1993 ''
Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, t ...
'' magazine report. Adaptations of two of her works have appeared as
feature film A feature film or feature-length film is a narrative film (motion picture or "movie") with a running time long enough to be considered the principal or sole presentation in a commercial entertainment program. The term ''feature film'' originall ...
s: her
debut novel A debut novel is the first novel a novelist publishes. Debut novels are often the author's first opportunity to make an impact on the publishing industry, and thus the success or failure of a debut novel can affect the ability of the author to p ...
''Monkey Grip'' and her true-crime book '' Joe Cinque's Consolation'' (2004)—the former released in 1982 and the latter in 2016. Garner's works have covered a broad range of themes and subject matter. She has thrice written true-crime books: first with ''The First Stone'', about the aftermath of a sexual-harassment scandal at a university, followed by ''Joe Cinque's Consolation'', a journalistic novel about the court proceedings involving a young man who died at the hands of his girlfriend, which won the Ned Kelly Award for Best Crime Book, and again in 2014 with '' This House of Grief'', about Robert Farquharson, a man who drove his children into a dam. The
Australian Broadcasting Corporation The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) is the national broadcaster of Australia. It is principally funded by direct grants from the Australian Government and is administered by a government-appointed board. The ABC is a publicly-own ...
(ABC) site has characterised her as one of Australia's "most important and admired writers", while ''
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'' referred to her as "Australia's greatest living writer".


Early life

Garner was born Helen Ford to Bruce and Gwen Ford (née Gadsden) in
Geelong Geelong ( ) (Wathawurrung: ''Djilang''/''Djalang'') is a port city in the southeastern Australian state of Victoria, located at the eastern end of Corio Bay (the smaller western portion of Port Phillip Bay) and the left bank of Barwon River, ...
,
Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seyche ...
, the eldest of six children.Goldsworthy (1996) p. ix Her sister Catherine Ford is also a writer of fiction. Garner described her upbringing as being in an "ordinary Australian home—not many books and not much talk". Garner attended Manifold Heights State School, Ocean Grove State School and then The Hermitage in Geelong, where she was the head prefect and
dux ''Dux'' (; plural: ''ducēs'') is Latin for "leader" (from the noun ''dux, ducis'', "leader, general") and later for duke and its variant forms (doge, duce, etc.). During the Roman Republic and for the first centuries of the Roman Empire, ''dux' ...
. She left Geelong after her high school graduation at the age of 18 to study 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 no ...
,Wyndham (2006) residing at Janet Clarke Hall, and graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree with majors in English and French. One of her teachers at the University of Melbourne was the poet
Vincent Buckley Vincent Thomas Buckley (8 July 1925 – 12 November 1988) was an Australian poet, teacher, editor, essayist and critic. Life Buckley was born in 1925 in Romsey, Victoria to Patrick Buckley, a carter and sometime farm labourer, and his wife Fr ...
. Between 1966 and 1972, Garner worked as a teacher at various Victorian high schools. In 1967, she also travelled overseas and met Bill Garner, whom she married in 1968 on their return to Australia, aged 25. Her only child, the actor, musician and writer
Alice Garner Alice Miriam Olivia Garner is an Australian actor, author, musician, teacher and historian. She is the daughter of Australian novelist and screenwriter Helen Garner and playwright, historian and actor Bill Garner. Acting life and career Gar ...
, was born in 1969. Garner's first marriage ended in 1971. In 1972, Garner was sacked by the Victorian Department of Education for "giving an unscheduled
sex education Sex education, also known as sexual education, sexuality education or sex ed, is the instruction of issues relating to human sexuality, including emotional relations and responsibilities, human sexual anatomy, sexual activity, sexual reproduc ...
lesson to her 13-year-old students at
Fitzroy High School Fitzroy High School is a school catering for Years 7 to 10, located in Falconer Street, Fitzroy, Melbourne, Australia. The school was first opened in 1915, but closed in 1992. After a long community campaign, it re-opened in 2004. History The ...
". She had written an essay about the lesson and published it under a
pen name A pen name, also called a ''nom de plume'' or a literary double, is a pseudonym (or, in some cases, a variant form of a real name) adopted by an author and printed on the title page or by-line of their works in place of their real name. A pen na ...
in '' The Digger'', a countercultural
Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a metr ...
-based magazine. Although the October 1972 article was considered "unsolicited", Garner wrote that she had intended to give a lesson on Ancient Greece, but the textbooks given to her students had been defaced with sexually explicit drawings. As a result of those drawings, the class had posed questions to Garner relating to sex, and she decided to allow an uninhibited discussion based around their questions which, as their teacher, she vowed to answer accurately. When her identity was revealed, she was called into the Victorian Department of Education and dismissed. The case was widely publicised in Melbourne, bringing Garner a degree of notoriety. Members of the Victorian Secondary Teachers Association went on
strike Strike may refer to: People * Strike (surname) Physical confrontation or removal *Strike (attack), attack with an inanimate object or a part of the human body intended to cause harm *Airstrike, military strike by air forces on either a suspected ...
in protest at the Deputy Director of Secondary Education's decision to fire Garner. Aside from her writing for ''The Digger'', she also wrote articles for the Melbourne feminist newspaper ''Vashti's Voice''. Garner appeared in the 1975 independent film '' Pure Shit'', which focuses on four drug addicts searching for heroin in Melbourne.


Career


Early career and fiction writing

Garner came to prominence at a time when Australian writers were relatively few in number, and Australian women writers were, by some, considered a novelty. Australian academic and writer,
Kerryn Goldsworthy Dr. Kerryn Lee Goldsworthy (born 14 May 1953) is an Australian freelance writer and former academic. Life and career Goldsworthy has edited four anthologies of Australian writing. She has also written many articles, essays and reviews. She has ...
, writes that "From the beginning of her writing career Garner was regarded as, and frequently called, a stylist, a realist, and a feminist".Goldsworthy (1996) p. 1 Her first novel, '' Monkey Grip'' (1977), relates the lives of a group of fledgeling artists, single parents, drug addicts and welfare recipients living in Melbourne share-houses. In particular focus is the increasingly co-dependent relationship between single mother Nora and Javo, a flaky junkie who Nora is in love with, despite him repeatedly drifting in and out of her life. The novel, set in inner-city Melbourne suburbs
Fitzroy Fitzroy or FitzRoy may refer to: People As a given name *Several members of the Somerset family ( Dukes of Beaufort) have this as a middle-name: ** FitzRoy Somerset, 1st Baron Raglan (1788–1855) ** Henry Charles FitzRoy Somerset, 8th Duke of Be ...
and Carlton, was written in the domed reading room at the
State Library of Victoria State Library Victoria (SLV) is the state library of Victoria, Australia. Located in Melbourne, it was established in 1854 as the Melbourne Public Library, making it Australia's oldest public library and one of the first free libraries in th ...
, after Garner's teaching dismissal. Years later she stated that she had adapted it directly from her personal diaries and based the relationship between Nora and Javo on a relationship she had with a man at the time. Other peripheral characters in the book were based on people in Garner's own social circle from Melbourne share-houses. ''Monkey Grip'' was very successful: it won the National Book Council Award in 1978 and was adapted into a film in 1982. Goldsworthy suggests that the success of ''Monkey Grip'' may well have helped revive the careers of two older but largely ignored Australian women writers, Jessica Anderson and
Thea Astley Thea Beatrice May Astley (25 August 1925 – 17 August 2004) was an Australian novelist and short story writer. She was a prolific writer who was published for over 40 years from 1958. At the time of her death, she had won more Miles Frankli ...
.Goldsworthy (1996) p. 14 Astley wrote of the novel that "I am filled with envy by someone like Helen Garner for instance. I re-read ''Monkey Grip'' a while ago and it's even better second time through". Critics have retrospectively applied the term Grunge Lit to describe ''Monkey Grip'', citing its depiction of urban life and social realism as being key aspects of later works in the subgenre.Vernay, Jean-François
"Grunge Fiction"
''The Literary Encyclopedia'', 6 November 2008, accessed 9 September 2009
In subsequent books, she has continued to adapt her personal experiences. Her later novels are: '' The Children's Bach'' (1984) and '' Cosmo Cosmolino'' (1992). In 2008 she returned to fiction writing with the publication of '' The Spare Room'', a fictional treatment of caring for a dying cancer patient, based on the illness and death of Garner's friend Jenya Osborne. She has also published several short story collections: ''Honour & Other People's Children: Two Stories'' (1980), ''Postcards from Surfers'' (1985) and ''My Hard Heart: Selected Fictions'' (1998). In 1986, Australian academic and critic, Don Anderson, wrote of ''The Children's Bach'': "There are four perfect short novels in the English language. They are, in chronological order,
Ford Madox Ford Ford Madox Ford (né Joseph Leopold Ford Hermann Madox Hueffer ( ); 17 December 1873 – 26 June 1939) was an English novelist, poet, critic and editor whose journals ''The English Review'' and '' The Transatlantic Review'' were instrumental in ...
's ''
The Good Soldier ''The Good Soldier: A Tale of Passion'' is a 1915 novel by the British writer Ford Madox Ford. It is set just before World War I, and chronicles the tragedy of Edward Ashburnham and his seemingly perfect marriage, along with that of his two ...
'',
Scott Fitzgerald Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald (September 24, 1896 – December 21, 1940) was an American novelist, essayist, and short story writer. He is best known for his novels depicting the flamboyance and excess of the Jazz Age—a term he popularize ...
's ''
The Great Gatsby ''The Great Gatsby'' is a 1925 novel by American writer F. Scott Fitzgerald. Set in the Jazz Age on Long Island, near New York City, the novel depicts first-person narrator Nick Carraway's interactions with mysterious millionaire Jay Gatsby ...
'',
Hemingway Ernest Miller Hemingway (July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961) was an American novelist, short-story writer, and journalist. His economical and understated style—which he termed the iceberg theory—had a strong influence on 20th-century ...
's ''
The Sun Also Rises ''The Sun Also Rises'' is a 1926 novel by American writer Ernest Hemingway, his first, that portrays American and British expatriates who travel from Paris to the Festival of San Fermín in Pamplona to watch the running of the bulls and the ...
'' and Garner's ''The Children's Bach''." The Australian composer Andrew Schultz wrote an opera of the same name which premiered in 2008. Garner said, in 1985, that writing novels was like "trying to make a patchwork quilt look seamless. A novel is made up of scraps of our own lives and bits of other people's, and things we think of in the middle of the night and whole notebooks full of randomly collected details". In an interview in 1999, she said that "My initial reason for writing is that I need to shape things so I can make them bearable or comprehensible to myself. It's my way of making sense of things that I've lived and seen other people live, things that I'm afraid of, or that I long for". Not all critics have liked Garner's work. Goldsworthy writes that "It is certainly the case that Garner is someone whose work elicits strong feelings ... and people who dislike her work are profoundly irritated by those who think she is one of the best writers in the country". Novelist and reviewer, Peter Corris, wrote in his review of ''Monkey Grip'' that Garner "has published her private journal rather than written a novel", while Peter Pierce wrote in ''
Meanjin ''Meanjin'' (), formerly ''Meanjin Papers'' and ''Meanjin Quarterly'', is an Australian literary magazine. The name is derived from the Turrbal word for the spike of land where the city of Brisbane is located. It was founded in 1940 in Brisban ...
'' of ''Honour & Other People's Children'' that Garner "talks dirty and passes it off as realism". Goldsworthy suggests that these two statements imply that she is not really a writer. Craven, though, argues that her novella, ''The Children's Bach'', "should put paid to the myth of Helen Garner as a mere literalist or reporter", arguing, in fact, that it "is light-years away from any sprawling-tell-it-all naturalism,
hat A hat is a head covering which is worn for various reasons, including protection against weather conditions, ceremonial reasons such as university graduation, religious reasons, safety, or as a fashion accessory. Hats which incorporate mecha ...
it is concentrated realism of extraordinary formal polish and the amount of tonal variation which it gets from its seemingly simple plot is multifoliate to the point of being awesome".


Screen writing

She has written three screenplays: '' Monkey Grip'' (1982), written with and directed by Ken Cameron; '' Two Friends'' (1986), directed by
Jane Campion Dame Elizabeth Jane Campion (born 30 April 1954) is a New Zealand filmmaker. She is best known for writing and directing the critically acclaimed films '' The Piano'' (1993) and '' The Power of the Dog'' (2021), for which she has received a to ...
for TV; and ''
The Last Days of Chez Nous ''The Last Days of Chez Nous'' is a 1992 Australian drama film directed by Gillian Armstrong and written by Helen Garner. Made in a style that emphasizes naturalism over melodrama, the film centres on what happens after Vicki arrives at the hous ...
'' (1992), directed by
Gillian Armstrong Gillian May Armstrong (born 18 December 1950) is an Australian feature film and documentary director, who specializes in period drama. Her films often feature female perspectives and protagonists. Many of her movies are historical dramas. Ea ...
. The relationship between two characters in ''The Last Days of Chez Nous'' was loosely inspired by the extramarital affair Garner's second husband had with her sister. Critic
Peter Craven Peter Theodore Craven
, fansite biography by Jim Blanchard. (accessed 12 July 2006).
(21 June 1934 – 2 ...
writes that "''Two Friends'' is arguably the most accomplished piece of screenwriting the country has seen and it is characterised by a total lack of condescension towards the teenage girls at its centre".


Non-fiction writing

Garner has written non-fiction from the beginning of her career as a writer. In 1972 she was fired from her teaching job after publishing in ''The Digger'', a
counter-culture A counterculture is a culture whose values and norms of behavior differ substantially from those of mainstream society, sometimes diametrically opposed to mainstream cultural mores.Eric Donald Hirsch. ''The Dictionary of Cultural Literacy''. Ho ...
magazine, an anonymous account of frank and extended discussions she had with her students about sexuality and sexual activities. She wrote for this magazine from 1972 to 1974. In 1993, she won a
Walkley Award The annual Walkley Awards are presented in Australia to recognise and reward excellence in journalism. They cover all media including print, television, documentary, radio, photographic and online media. The Gold Walkley is the highest prize and ...
for her ''
Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, t ...
'' magazine account of a murder trial following the death of a toddler at the hands of his stepfather. One of her most famous and controversial books is '' The First Stone'' (1995), an account of a 1992 sexual harassment scandal at
Ormond College Ormond College is the largest of the residential colleges of the University of Melbourne located in the city of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It is home to around 350 undergraduates, 90 graduates and 35 professorial and academic residents. H ...
. It was a best-seller in Australia but also attracted considerable criticism. Garner had received vicious hate-mail from women in Australia who accused her of derailing the feminist debate, and closing ranks with the abuser. She has since commented: "Sometimes I would have these kind of panic attacks caused by the hostility that some people showed towards me. I guess I knew there was going to be trouble, but the vitriolic nature of it gave me a bit of a shock". Garner's other non-fiction books are: ''True Stories: Selected Non-Fiction'' (1996), ''The Feel of Steel'' (2001), '' Joe Cinque's Consolation'' (2004) and '' This House of Grief – The Story of a Murder Trial'' (2014). She also contributed to ''La Mama, the Story of a Theatre'' (1988). ''Joe Cinque's Consolation'' details a notorious murder case in
Canberra Canberra ( ) is the capital city of Australia. Founded following the federation of the colonies of Australia as the seat of government for the new nation, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The ci ...
involving a law student, Anu Singh, who drugged and murdered her boyfriend. It was adapted into a feature film in 2016. The film had premiers at both the Melbourne Film Festival and the
Toronto International Film Festival The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF, often stylized as tiff) is one of the largest publicly attended film festivals in the world, attracting over 480,000 people annually. Since its founding in 1976, TIFF has grown to become a permane ...
, where it was generally well received, although detractors felt that the absence of Garner's voice from the story impacted the film—James Robert Douglas, writing for ''The Guardian'', stated the film adaptation contained the "bones but not the wisdom of Garner's book".


Themes

Garner has covered a broad range of themes in her work, ranging from feminism, love, loss, grief, ageing, illness, death, murder, betrayal, addiction and the duality of the human psyche, particularly in manifestations of "good" and "evil". Her earliest work, ''Monkey Grip'', is well known for its untamed depiction of heroin addiction. Its central character, a single mother, falls in love with an addict in an inner-city bohemian Melbourne suburb, dotted with junkies and share houses, during the 1970s. Drug addiction, however, was not a subject Garner would revisit, aside from touching on recreational drug use among university students in ''Joe Cinque's Consolation''. However, ''Monkey Grip'' did establish Garner's trademark theme of obsession, particularly in conjunction with love and sexuality—enmeshed with substance abuse mirroring the addiction of romantic love. Some of her novels address "sexual desire and the family", exploring "the relationship between sexual behaviour and social organisation; the anarchic nature of desire and the orderly force of the institution of 'family'; the similarities and differences between collective households and nuclear families; the significance and the language of housework; ndthe idea of 'the house' as image, symbol, site and peace." Garner has become known for her depiction of Australian life, both in the city and rural regions—she was born in Geelong and spent much of her life in Melbourne, approximately from her hometown. Anne Myers, in an article written for ''
The Sydney Morning Herald ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' (''SMH'') is a daily compact newspaper published in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, and owned by Nine. Founded in 1831 as the ''Sydney Herald'', the ''Herald'' is the oldest continuously published newspaper ...
'', recognised Garner's portrayals of the location of Melbourne as essential to ''Monkey Grip'' itself as any character: "Garner was writing Melbourne into the literary landscape and for the first time I saw my own world reflected back at me". ''Joe Cinque's Consolation'', ''This House of Grief'' and, to a lesser extent, ''The First Stone'', were commentaries on the justice system in Australia, how (and if) it adequately responds to crime, as well as the question of culpability. Craven comments that Garner is "always an extremely ''accurate'' writer in terms of the emotional states she depicts". Many of her books touch upon the inexplicable, irrational, and dark side to human behaviour—as well as Garner's attempts to understand human behaviour and sociology, which often eludes the average Australian and wider society, as well as the Australian justice system. In ''The Fate of The First Stone'', Garner writes that she believes most people would prefer to keep incomprehensible stories of extreme behaviour at "arm's length" because it is "more comfortable, easier".
Peter Craven Peter Theodore Craven
, fansite biography by Jim Blanchard. (accessed 12 July 2006).
(21 June 1934 – 2 ...
wrote that Garner is fearless in her honesty: "she shows us what she does not know or is too blind to see: she shows us the poverty of the self in the face of impercipience caused by sentiment or anger, prejudice, ignorance or dumb incapacity." He further commented on her ability to sometimes identify with the story's perceived villain, " hetransgressor who at some level shares our own fingerprints". Similarly, various critics and journalists have highlighted Garner's portrayal of "ordinary people" caught up in extraordinary experiences, or the everyday person who, "under life's unbearable pressures", has "surrendered to their darker selves". James Wood, in a profile on Garner published in ''
The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...
'', stated that her work is absorbed in issues of gender and class, which he writes are "not categories so much as structures of feeling, variously argued over, enjoyed, endured, and escaped".


Personal life

After her marriage to Bill Garner ended, Garner married two more times: to Jean-Jacques Portail (1980–85) and Australian writer Murray Bail (born 1941), from whom she separated in the late 1990s. She is no longer married. In her work, she has been open about her struggle with depression and her two
abortion Abortion is the termination of a pregnancy by removal or expulsion of an embryo or fetus. An abortion that occurs without intervention is known as a miscarriage or "spontaneous abortion"; these occur in approximately 30% to 40% of preg ...
s. She has one child,
Alice Garner Alice Miriam Olivia Garner is an Australian actor, author, musician, teacher and historian. She is the daughter of Australian novelist and screenwriter Helen Garner and playwright, historian and actor Bill Garner. Acting life and career Gar ...
(b. 1969), from her marriage to Bill Garner. Alice Garner is also an author, as well as a musician, teacher and historian. In 2003, a portrait of Garner, titled ''True Stories'', painted by Jenny Sages, was a finalist in the
Archibald Prize The Archibald Prize is an Australian portraiture art prize for painting, generally seen as the most prestigious portrait prize in Australia. It was first awarded in 1921 after the receipt of a bequest from J. F. Archibald, the editor ...
.


Bibliography


Novels

*'' Monkey Grip'' (1977) *''Moving Out'' (1983) *'' The Children's Bach'' (1984) *'' Cosmo Cosmolino'' (1992) *'' The Spare Room'' (2008)


Short story collections

*'' Honour & Other People's Children: Two Stories'' (1980) *'' Postcards from Surfers'' (1985) *'' My Hard Heart: Selected Fictions'' (1998) *''Stories: The Collected Short Fiction'' (2017)


Screenplays

*'' Monkey Grip'' (1982, directed and co-written by Ken Cameron) *'' Two Friends'' (1986, telemovie, directed by
Jane Campion Dame Elizabeth Jane Campion (born 30 April 1954) is a New Zealand filmmaker. She is best known for writing and directing the critically acclaimed films '' The Piano'' (1993) and '' The Power of the Dog'' (2021), for which she has received a to ...
) *''
The Last Days of Chez Nous ''The Last Days of Chez Nous'' is a 1992 Australian drama film directed by Gillian Armstrong and written by Helen Garner. Made in a style that emphasizes naturalism over melodrama, the film centres on what happens after Vicki arrives at the hous ...
'' (1992, directed by
Gillian Armstrong Gillian May Armstrong (born 18 December 1950) is an Australian feature film and documentary director, who specializes in period drama. Her films often feature female perspectives and protagonists. Many of her movies are historical dramas. Ea ...
)


Non-fiction

*''La Mama: History of a Theatre'' ( Liz Jones with Betty Burstall and Helen Garner, 1988) *'' The First Stone'' (1995) *'' True Stories: Selected Non-Fiction'' (1996) *''And the Winner Is–: Eighteen Winning Stories from Eltham's Alan Marshall Award, Australian Authors, Both Winners and Judges, Discuss Their Work in a Book about Writing'' (authors Helen Garner and Jon Weaving) (1997) *'' The Feel of Steel'' (2001) *'' Joe Cinque's Consolation'' (2004) *''Somewhere to Belong: A Blueprint for 21st Century Youth Clubs'' (authors Helen Garner and Julia Hargreaves) (2009) *'' This House of Grief – The Story of a Murder Trial'' (2014) *''Regions of Thick-Ribbed Ice'' (2015) *'' Everywhere I Look'' (2016) *''True Stories: The Collected Short Non-Fiction'' (2017)


Autobiographies

*''Yellow Notebook: Diaries Volume I 1978–1987'' (2019) *''One Day I'll Remember This: Diaries 1987–1995'' (2020) *''How To End A Story: Diaries 1995-1998'' (2021)


Essays and reporting


"Man with the Pearl-White Cord"
Dec 2005 – Jan 2006, No. 8, ''
The Monthly ''The Monthly'' is an Australian national magazine of politics, society and the arts, which is published eleven times per year on a monthly basis except the December/January issue. Founded in 2005, it is published by Melbourne property developer ...
''
"Moving Experience"
September 2005, No. 5, ''The Monthly''
"Punishing Lauren"
June 2005, No. 2, ''The Monthly''

18 January 2013 ''
The Sydney Morning Herald ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' (''SMH'') is a daily compact newspaper published in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, and owned by Nine. Founded in 1831 as the ''Sydney Herald'', the ''Herald'' is the oldest continuously published newspaper ...
''


Critical studies and reviews of Garner's work

*


Awards and nominations

* '' Monkey Grip'' ** 1978 – National Book Council award * '' The Children's Bach'' ** 1986 – South Australian Premier's Awards * '' Postcards from Surfers'' ** 1986 –
New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards The New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards, also known as the NSW Premier's Literary Awards, were first awarded in 1979. They are among the richest literary awards in Australia. Notable prizes include the Christina Stead Prize for Fiction, th ...
, Christina Stead Prize for Fiction * '' Two Friends'' ** 1987 –
New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards The New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards, also known as the NSW Premier's Literary Awards, were first awarded in 1979. They are among the richest literary awards in Australia. Notable prizes include the Christina Stead Prize for Fiction, th ...
, Television Writing Award ** 1987 – Best Screenplay in a Telefeature * '' Cosmo Cosmolino'' ** 1993 – Shortlisted for the
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 ...
* ''Did Daniel Have to Die?'' ** 1993 –
Walkley Award The annual Walkley Awards are presented in Australia to recognise and reward excellence in journalism. They cover all media including print, television, documentary, radio, photographic and online media. The Gold Walkley is the highest prize and ...
for Best Feature Writing, published in ''
Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, t ...
'' * ''True Stories: Selected Non-fiction'' ** 1997 –
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 ...
* '' Joe Cinque's Consolation'' ** 2004 – ABIA Book of the Year ** 2005 – Ned Kelly Awards joint winner for Best True Crime * '' The Spare Room'' ** 2008 –
Victorian Premier's Literary Awards The Victorian Premier's Literary Awards were created by the Victorian Government with the aim of raising the profile of contemporary creative writing and Australia's publishing industry. As of 2013, it is reportedly Australia's richest literary p ...
,
Vance Palmer Prize for Fiction The Victorian Premier's Prize for Fiction, formerly known as the Vance Palmer Prize for Fiction, is a prize category in the annual Victorian Premier's Literary Award. As of 2011 it has an remuneration of 25,000. The winner of this category prize v ...
** 2008 –
Queensland Premier's Literary Awards The Queensland Premier's Literary Awards were an Australian suite of literary awards inaugurated in 1999 and disestablished in 2012. It was one of the most generous suites of literary awards within Australia, with $225,000 in prize money across ...
Fiction Book Award ** 2009 – Barbara Jefferis Award * '' This House of Grief'' ** 2015 – Ned Kelly Award – Best True Crime ** 2015 – Longlisted Stella Prize ** 2015 – Shortlisteds ABIA General Non-Fiction Book of the Year. **2015 - Shortlisted New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards ** 2016 – Windham–Campbell Literature Prize for non-fiction works ** 2016 – Western Australian Premier's Book Awards – non-fiction ** 2016 – Western Australian Premier's Book Awards – overall prize * '' Everywhere I Look'' ** 2017 – Shortlist for The Indie Book Awards * 2006 – Melbourne Prize for Literature *2019 –
Australia Council The Australia Council for the Arts, commonly known as the Australia Council, is the country's official arts council, serving as an arts funding and advisory body for the Government of Australia. The council was announced in 1967 as the Austra ...
Award for Lifetime Achievement in Literature *2020 –
Australian Book Industry Awards The Australian Book Industry Awards (ABIA) are publishers' and literary awards held by the Australian Publishers Association annually in Sydney "to celebrate the achievements of authors and publishers in bringing Australian books to readers". ...
' Lloyd O'Neil Award and Hall of Fame


Critical studies and reviews

* Review of ''This House of Grief''.


Notes


References

* Craven, Peter (1985) "Of war and needlework: the fiction of Helen Garner" in ''
Meanjin ''Meanjin'' (), formerly ''Meanjin Papers'' and ''Meanjin Quarterly'', is an Australian literary magazine. The name is derived from the Turrbal word for the spike of land where the city of Brisbane is located. It was founded in 1940 in Brisban ...
'', 44(2): 209–219 * * Goldsworthy, Kerryn (1996) ''Australian Writers: Helen Garner'', Melbourne,
Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...
* Grenville, Kate and Woolfe, Sue (2001) ''Making Stories: How Ten Australian Novels Were Written'',
Allen & Unwin George Allen & Unwin was a British publishing company formed in 1911 when Sir Stanley Unwin purchased a controlling interest in George Allen & Co. It went on to become one of the leading publishers of the twentieth century and to establish an ...
* McPhee, Hilary (2001) ''Other People's Words'', Sydney,
Picador A ''picador'' (; pl. ''picadores'') is one of the pair of horse-mounted bullfighters in a Spanish-style bullfight that jab the bull with a lance. They perform in the ''tercio de varas'', which is the first of the three stages in a stylized bullf ...


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