Maria Tumarkin is an Australian
cultural historian
Cultural history combines the approaches of anthropology and history to examine popular cultural traditions and cultural interpretations of historical experience. It examines the records and narrative descriptions of past matter, encompassing the ...
,
essayist
An essay is, generally, a piece of writing that gives the author's own argument, but the definition is vague, overlapping with those of a letter, a paper, an article, a pamphlet, and a short story. Essays have been sub-classified as formal ...
and
novelist
A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living writing novels and other fiction, while others asp ...
, and is Senior Lecturer in the School of Culture and Communication 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 ...
, teaching creative writing.
Biography
Tumarkin was born and raised in
Kharkov
Kharkiv ( uk, Ха́рків, ), also known as Kharkov (russian: Харькoв, ), is the second-largest city and municipality in Ukraine. , then part of the
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...
, now in
Ukraine
Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...
.
She left her home country in 1989 when she was a teenager, before the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991.
She holds a
Bachelor of Arts
Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...
and a
PhD in
cultural history
Cultural history combines the approaches of anthropology and history to examine popular cultural traditions and cultural interpretations of historical experience. It examines the records and narrative descriptions of past matter, encompassing the ...
from the University of Melbourne.
[
She writes books of ideas, reviews, essays and pieces for performance.][ She was an Honorary Artistic Outreach Associate (2015–2016) at the ]ARC Centre of Excellence for the History of Emotions
The ARC Centre of Excellence for the History of Emotions (CHE) is an Australian research centre that undertakes research in the history of emotions. The Centre was established in 2011 with core funding from the Australian Research Council (ARC), ...
and a co-creator, with Moya McFadzean, of "The Unending Absence" project.[
]
Works
Books
* '' Traumascapes: The Power and Fate of Places Transformed by Tragedy'' (2005)
* ''Courage'' (2007)
* ''Otherland: A Journey With My Daughter'' (2010)
* ''Axiomatic'' (2018)
Essays (selected)
*''This Narrated Life'' (Griffith Review, 1 May 2014)
*''No Skin'' (2 September 2015)
*''Against Motherhood'' (20 October 2018)
Awards
*''Otherland'' was shortlisted for the 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 ...
, The Age Book of the Year, and NSW Premier’s Literary Award.
*''No Skin'' was one of five finalists for the 2015 Melbourne Prize in Writing for essays shorter than 20,000 words.[''Where are all the great Australian essays?'', 24 February 2016](_blank)
Sydney Morning Herald
*''Axiomatic'' won the 2018 Melbourne Prize for Best Writing and was shortlisted for the 2019 Victorian Premier's Prize for Nonfiction The Victorian Premier's Prize for Nonfiction, formerly known as the
Nettie Palmer Prize for Non-Fiction, is a prize category in the annual Victorian Premier's Literary Award. As of 2011 it has a remuneration of 25,000. The winner of this category p ...
. It was also shortlisted for the 2019 Stella Prize. and the 2019 NSW Premier's Literary Awards, Douglas Stewart Prize for Non-Fiction.
*Winner of the 2020 Windham-Campbell Literature Prize
References
External links
Personal Site
Living people
University of Melbourne alumni
20th-century Australian historians
21st-century Australian historians
Year of birth missing (living people)
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