Nikki Gemmell
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Nikki Gemmell (born 1966) is a best-selling Australian author. She resides in
Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...
, Australia.


Career

Gemmell is the author of fourteen works of fiction and seven non-fiction books. Her books have been translated into 22 languages. Nikki was born in
Wollongong Wollongong ( ), colloquially referred to as The Gong, is a city located in the Illawarra region of New South Wales, Australia. The name is believed to originate from the Dharawal language, meaning either 'five islands/clouds', 'ground near wate ...
, New South Wales, and attended
Kincoppal-Rose Bay , motto_translation = One Heart , established = , type = Independent early learning, primary and secondary day and boarding school , denomination = Roman Catholic , religious_affilia ...
, Sydney, on a scholarship. She graduated from the
University of Technology Sydney The University of Technology Sydney (UTS) is a public research university located in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Although its origins are said to trace back to the 1830s, the university was founded in its current form in 1988. As of 2021 ...
with a Masters in Writing and worked as a radio journalist for ABC Radio and the
BBC World Service The BBC World Service is an international broadcasting, international broadcaster owned and operated by the BBC, with funding from the Government of the United Kingdom, British Government through the Foreign Secretary, Foreign Secretary's o ...
.Healy, Madeline
Nikki Gemmell changes tact in ''The Book of Rapture''
''
The Courier-Mail ''The Courier-Mail'' is an Australian newspaper published in Brisbane. Owned by News Corp Australia, it is published daily from Monday to Saturday in Tabloid (newspaper format), tabloid format. Its editorial offices are located at Bowen Hills, ...
'', 27 June 2009. Retrieved 22 July 2009.
Her distinctive writing style, including her use of the
second-person narrative Narration is the use of a written or spoken commentary to convey a story to an audience. Narration is conveyed by a narrator: a specific person, or unspecified literary voice, developed by the creator of the story to deliver information to the ...
, has gained her critical and popular acclaim. In France she has been described as a "female
Jack Kerouac Jean-Louis Lebris de Kérouac (; March 12, 1922 – October 21, 1969), known as Jack Kerouac, was an American novelist and poet who, alongside William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg, was a pioneer of the Beat Generation. Of French-Canadian a ...
". In 2007, the French literary magazine '' Lire'' included her in a list of what it called the fifty most important writers in the world – those it believed would have a significant influence on the literature of the 21st century. Her best-known work is the 2003 novel '' The Bride Stripped Bare'', an explicit exploration of female sexuality, which was originally written and published anonymously. Gemmell was identified publicly as the author of ''The Bride Stripped Bare'' before publication.Interview transcript: Nikki Gemmell
''
Enough Rope ''Enough Rope with Andrew Denton'' (often shortened to ''Enough Rope'') is a television interview show originally broadcast on ABC1 in Australia. The title of the show came from the phrase " give someone enough rope and they'll hang themselves ...
with
Andrew Denton Andrew Christopher Denton (born 4 May 1960) is an Australian television producer, comedian, Gold Logie-nominated television presenter and former radio host, and was the host of the ABC's weekly television interview program ''Enough Rope'' and ...
'', ABC TV, 28 July 2005.
The book went on to become a worldwide publishing sensation and the best-selling book by an Australian author in 2003. In the wake of the success of ''
Fifty Shades of Grey ''Fifty Shades of Grey'' is a 2011 erotic romance novel by British author E. L. James. It became the first instalment in the ''Fifty Shades'' novel series that follows the deepening relationship between a college graduate, Anastasia Steele, ...
'', it reentered the fiction charts in the UK in the summer of 2012. Two follow-up novels complete ''The Bride Stripped Bare'' trilogy: ''With My Body'' and ''I Take You''. She has also published two series of books for children, the ''Kensington Reptilarium'' and ''Coco Banjo'' series. Gemmell pens a weekly column for ''
The Weekend Australian ''The Australian'', with its Saturday edition, ''The Weekend Australian'', is a broadsheet newspaper published by News Corp Australia since 14 July 1964.Bruns, Axel. "3.1. The active audience: Transforming journalism from gatekeeping to gatewat ...
'' newspaper. In 2003 Gemmell also penned a weekly column for the ''
Mail on Sunday ''The Mail on Sunday'' is a British conservative newspaper, published in a tabloid format. It is the biggest-selling Sunday newspaper in the UK and was launched in 1982 by Lord Rothermere. Its sister paper, the ''Daily Mail'', was first pub ...
'' in London which formed the basis of a compendium titled ''Pleasure: An Almanac for the Heart'' (2006).Beck, Chris
Pleasure of the next text
''
The Age ''The Age'' is a daily newspaper in Melbourne, Australia, that has been published since 1854. Owned and published by Nine Entertainment, ''The Age'' primarily serves Victoria (Australia), Victoria, but copies also sell in Tasmania, the Austral ...
'', 10 December 2006.
In 2014 ''The Kensington Reptilarium'' was shortlisted for an
Australian Book Industry Award 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". ...
in the category of Book of the Year for Older Children. In 1999 ''Cleave'' was shortlisted in the Fiction category of the
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 ...
. Four books by Gemmell, ''Shiver'', ''Cleave'', ''The Bride Stripped Bare'' and ''The Book of Rapture'', made the longlist of "Favourite Australian Novels" as chosen by readers of the ''
Australian Book Review ''Australian Book Review'' is an Australian arts and literary review. Created in 1961, ''ABR'' is an independent non-profit organisation that publishes articles, reviews, commentaries, essays, and new writing. The aims of the magazine are 'to ...
''."Favourite Australian Novels of the 21st Century"
''
Australian Book Review ''Australian Book Review'' is an Australian arts and literary review. Created in 1961, ''ABR'' is an independent non-profit organisation that publishes articles, reviews, commentaries, essays, and new writing. The aims of the magazine are 'to ...
'', February 2010


Bibliography


Adult novels

* ''The Ripping Tree'' (2021) * ''I Take You'' (2013) * ''With My Body'' (2011) * ''The Book of Rapture'' (2009) * '' The Bride Stripped Bare'' (2003) * ''Lovesong'' (2002) * ''Cleave'' (1998); published as ''Alice Springs'' in the United States (1999) * ''Shiver'' (1997)


For children

* ''The Luna Laboratorium'' (2015) * ''The Icicle Illuminarium'' (2013) * ''The Kensington Reptilarium'' (2013) * ''Coco Banjo and the Super Wow Surprise'' (2016) * ''Coco Banjo Has Been Unfriended'' (2015) * ''Coco Banjo is Having a Yay Day'' (2015)


Non fiction

* ''Dissolve'' (2021) * ''On Quiet'' (2018) * ''After'' (2017; written in response to her mother's suicide) * ''Personally – Further Notes on Life'' (2013) * ''Honestly – Notes on Life'' (2012) * ''Why You Are Australian – A Letter to My Children'' (2009) * ''Pleasure: An Almanac of the Heart'' (2006), published as ''Plaisir : Un florilège du coeur'' in France (2011)


Anthologies

* ''Just Between Us: Australian Writers Tell The Truth About Female Friendship'' (Pan Macmillan Australia, 2013) Ed. Maya Linden, Christie Nieman, Maggie Scott, Natalie Kon-Yu, Miriam Sved * ''Better than Fiction: True Travel Tales from Great Fiction Writers'' (Lonely Planet, 2012) Ed. Don George * ''The Divided Heart: Art and Motherhood'' (Red Dog Books, 2012) Ed. Rachel Power * ''Inside Notting Hill'' (Umbrella Books, 2007). Ed. Miranda Davies, Sarah Anderson * ''Some Girls Do ... My Life as a Teenager'' (Arena, 2006) Ed. Jacinta Tynan * ''Come Away With Me'' (Bantam, 2004) Ed. Sarah Macdonald * ''Writers on Writing'' (Penguin Books Australia, 2004). Ed. Roberts, Barry Mitchell, Roger Zubrinich * ''Australian Expats: Stories from Abroad'' (Global Exchange, 2003) Ed. Bryan Havenhand, Anne MacGregor * ''Gas and Air: Tales of Pregnancy, Birth and Beyond'' (Bloomsbury UK, 2002). Ed. Jill Dawson, Margo Daly * ''Neverland: What Australia Might Have Been'' (Pluto Press, 2002). Ed. Kevin Murray * ''My One True Love'' (Random House Australia, 2000). Ed.
Caro Llewellyn Caro Llewellyn (born 1965) is an Australian business executive, artistic director, festival manager and nonfiction writer. As of 2020, she is chief executive officer of the Wheeler Centre in Melbourne. Career Llewellyn is the daughter of Ri ...
* ''Australian Summer Stories'' (Penguin Australia, 1999) * ''Partners'' (HarperCollins Australia, 1999). Ed.
Ross Fitzgerald Ross Andrew Fitzgerald (born in 1944) is an Australian academic, historian, novelist, secularist, and political commentator. Fitzgerald is an Emeritus Professor in History and Politics at Griffith University. He has published forty-three books ...
, Anne Henderson


References


External links


Official website

Review of The Bride Stripped Bare
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gemmell, Nikki 1966 births Living people Australian women novelists Australian expatriates in the United Kingdom University of Technology Sydney alumni People educated at Kincoppal School Date of birth missing (living people) Australian columnists Australian women columnists 20th-century Australian novelists 20th-century Australian women writers