Richard Miller Flanagan (born 1961) is an Australian writer, who has also worked as a film director and screenwriter. He won the

2014 Man Booker Prize The 2014 Man Booker Prize for fiction was awarded at a ceremony on 14 October 2014. Until 2014, only novels written in English and from authors in the Commonwealth, including the UK, the Republic of Ireland and Zimbabwe were eligible for considerat ...

for his novel '' The Narrow Road to the Deep North''. Flanagan was described by the ''Washington Post'' as "one of our greatest living novelists". " nsidered by many to be the finest Australian novelist of his generation", according to ''

The Economist ''The Economist'' is a British weekly newspaper printed in demitab format and published digitally. It focuses on current affairs, international business, politics, technology, and culture. Based in London, the newspaper is owned by The Econo ...

, the New York Review of Books'' described Flanagan as "among the most versatile writers in the English language".

Early life and education

Flanagan was born in

Longford Longford () is the county town of County Longford in Ireland. It has a population of 10,008 according to the 2016 census. It is the biggest town in the county and about one third of the county's population lives there. Longford lies at the meet ...

Tasmania ) , nickname = , image_map = Tasmania in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Tasmania in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdi ...

, in 1961, the fifth of six children. He is descended from Irish convicts transported to

Van Diemen's Land Van Diemen's Land was the colonial name of the island of Tasmania used by the British during the European exploration of Australia in the 19th century. A British settlement was established in Van Diemen's Land in 1803 before it became a sepa ...

during the Great Famine in

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

. Flanagan's father was a survivor of the Burma

Death Railway The Burma Railway, also known as the Siam–Burma Railway, Thai–Burma Railway and similar names, or as the Death Railway, is a railway between Ban Pong, Thailand and Thanbyuzayat, Burma (now called Myanmar). It was built from 1940 to 1943 ...

and one of his three brothers is

Australian rules football Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an oval field, often a modified cricket ground. Points are scored by k ...

journalist Martin Flanagan. Flanagan was born with a severe hearing loss, which was corrected when he was six years old. He grew up in the remote mining town of Rosebery on Tasmania's western coast. Flanagan left school at the age of 16 but returned to study at the

University of Tasmania The University of Tasmania (UTAS) is a public research university, primarily located in Tasmania, Australia. Founded in 1890, it is Australia's fourth oldest university. Christ College, one of the university's residential colleges, first pro ...

, where he was president of the

Tasmania University Union The Tasmanian University Student Association (TUSA) was formerly known as Tasmania University Union (TUU), is the peak body of student representation for tertiary students attending the University of Tasmania and was established in 1899. The Stud ...

in 1983. He graduated with 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 ...

with

First-Class Honours The British undergraduate degree classification system is a grading structure for undergraduate degrees or bachelor's degrees and integrated master's degrees in the United Kingdom. The system has been applied (sometimes with significant variati ...

. The following year, he was awarded a

Rhodes Scholarship The Rhodes Scholarship is an international postgraduate award for students to study at the University of Oxford, in the United Kingdom. Established in 1902, it is the oldest graduate scholarship in the world. It is considered among the world' ...

Worcester College Worcester College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. The college was founded in 1714 by the benefaction of Sir Thomas Cookes, 2nd Baronet (1648–1701) of Norgrove, Worcestershire, whose coat of arms w ...

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

, where he was admitted to the degree of

Master of Letters The Master of Letters degree (MLitt or LittM; Latin ' or ') is a postgraduate degree. Ireland Trinity College Dublin and Maynooth University offer MLitt degrees. Trinity has offered them the longest, owing largely to its tradition as Ireland ...

History History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the History of writing#Inventions of writing, invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbr ...

Early works

Flanagan wrote four non-fiction works before moving to fiction, works that he called "his apprenticeship". One of these was ''Codename Iago'', an autobiography of Australian con man John Friedrich, which Flanagan ghostwrote in six weeks to make money to write his first novel. Friedrich killed himself in the middle of the book's writing and it was published posthumously. Simon Caterson, writing in ''

The 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 gatew ...

'', described it as "one of the least reliable but most fascinating memoirs in the annals of Australian publishing".

Novels

Flanagan's first novel, ''

Death of a River Guide Death is the Irreversible process, irreversible cessation of all biological process, biological functions that sustain an organism. For organisms with a brain, death can also be defined as the irreversible cessation of functioning of the whol ...

'' (1994), is the tale of Aljaz Cosini, river guide, who lies drowning, reliving his life and the lives of his family and forebears. It was described by ''

The Times Literary Supplement ''The Times Literary Supplement'' (''TLS'') is a weekly literary review published in London by News UK, a subsidiary of News Corp. History The ''TLS'' first appeared in 1902 as a supplement to ''The Times'' but became a separate publication i ...

'' as "one of the most auspicious debuts in Australian writing". His next book, '' The Sound of One Hand Clapping'' (1997), which tells the story of Slovenian immigrants, was a major bestseller, selling more than 150,000 copies in Australia. Flanagan's first two novels, declared ''Kirkus Reviews'', "rank with the finest fiction out of Australia since the heyday of

Patrick White Patrick Victor Martindale White (28 May 1912 – 30 September 1990) was a British-born Australian writer who published 12 novels, three short-story collections, and eight plays, from 1935 to 1987. White's fiction employs humour, florid prose, ...

". ''

Gould's Book of Fish ''Gould's Book of Fish: A Novel in Twelve Fish'' is a 2001 novel by Tasmanian author Richard Flanagan. ''Gould's Book of Fish'' was Flanagan's third novel. Plot summary ''Gould's Book of Fish'' is a fictionalised account of the convict William ...

'' (2001), Flanagan's third novel, is based on the life of

William Buelow Gould William Buelow Gould (1801 – 11 December 1853) was an English and Van Diemonian (Tasmanian) painter. He was transported to Australia as a convict in 1827, after which he would become one of the most important early artists in the colony, des ...

, a convict artist, and tells the tale of his love affair with a young black woman in 1828. It won the 2002

Commonwealth Writers' Prize Commonwealth Foundation presented a number of prizes between 1987 and 2011. The main award was called the Commonwealth Writers' Prize and was composed of two prizes: the Best Book Prize (overall and regional) was awarded from 1987 to 2011; the Best ...

. Flanagan described these early novels as 'soul histories'. His fourth novel was ''

The Unknown Terrorist ''The Unknown Terrorist'' is the 2006 fourth novel by the Australian novelist Richard Flanagan. Writing in The Guardian, Scottish novelist James Buchan described the novel as moving Heinrich Böll's 1974 work ''The Lost Honour of Katharina Blu ...

'' (2006), which ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' called "stunning ... a brilliant meditation upon the post-9/11 world". His fifth novel, '' Wanting'' (2008) tells two parallel stories: about the novelist

Charles Dickens Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian e ...

in England, and Mathinna, an Aboriginal orphan adopted by Sir

John Franklin Sir John Franklin (16 April 1786 – 11 June 1847) was a British Royal Navy officer and Arctic explorer. After serving in wars against Napoleonic France and the United States, he led two expeditions into the Canadian Arctic and through ...

, the colonial governor of

, and his wife, Lady Jane Franklin. As well as being a ''

New Yorker New Yorker or ''variant'' primarily refers to: * A resident of the State of New York ** Demographics of New York (state) * A resident of New York City ** List of people from New York City * ''The New Yorker'', a magazine founded in 1925 * ''The New ...

'' Book of the Year and '' Observer'' Book of the Year, it won the Queensland Premier's Prize, the Western Australian Premier's Prize and the Tasmania Book Prize. His sixth novel was '' The Narrow Road to the Deep North'' (2013), called "a masterpiece" by ''

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 ...

''. It won the

. His seventh novel was ''First Person'', based loosely on his experience early in his writing career ghost-writing the autobiography of John Friedrich. According to the ''New Yorker'' "the novel, with its switchbacking recollections and cyclical dialogue, its penetrating scenes of birth and, eventually, death, is enigmatic and mesmerizing" while the ''New York Review of Books'' called it a "tour-de-force". ''The Living Sea of Waking Dreams'' (September, 2020) was Flanagan's eighth novel. In a review for ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' Michael Williams called it "a revelation and a triumph . . . astonishing", while Geordie Williamson in ''The Australian,'' comparing the novel to William Faulkner's ''As I Lay Dying'', hailed it as Flanagan's "second great novel" after ''Gould's Book of Fish''. Robert Dixon's (ed.) ''Richard Flanagan: Critical Essays'' (2018) offers different perspectives on Flanagan's writing, while

Joyce Carol Oates Joyce Carol Oates (born June 16, 1938) is an American writer. Oates published her first book in 1963, and has since published 58 novels, a number of plays and novellas, and many volumes of short stories, poetry, and non-fiction. Her novels '' Bla ...

has written an overview of his novels.

Journalism

Flanagan has written on literature, the environment, art and politics for the Australian and international press including ''

Le Monde ''Le Monde'' (; ) is a French daily afternoon newspaper. It is the main publication of Le Monde Group and reported an average circulation of 323,039 copies per issue in 2009, about 40,000 of which were sold abroad. It has had its own website si ...

'', ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was fo ...

'' (London), '' Suddeutsche Zeitung'', ''

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 ...

'', ''

'', and the ''

''. Some of his writings have proved controversial. "The Selling-out of Tasmania", published after the death of former

Premier Premier is a title for the head of government in central governments, state governments and local governments of some countries. A second in command to a premier is designated as a deputy premier. A premier will normally be a head of governm ...

Jim Bacon James or Jim Bacon may refer to: *Jim Bacon (politician) (James Alexander Bacon, 1950–2004), Premier of Tasmania, 1998–2004 *Jim Bacon (rugby) James Arthur Bacon (fourth ¼ 1896 – fourth ¼ 1968) was a Welsh rugby union, and professional ...

in 2004, was critical of the Bacon government's relationship with corporate interests in the state. Premier

Paul Lennon Paul Anthony Lennon (born 8 October 1955) is a Labor Party politician. He was Premier of Tasmania from 21 March 2004 until his resignation on 26 May 2008. He was member of the Tasmanian House of Assembly for the seat of Franklin from 1990 unt ...

declared, "Richard Flanagan and his fictions are not welcome in the new Tasmania". Flanagan's 2007 essay on logging company Gunns, then the biggest hardwood woodchipper in the world, "Gunns. Out of Control" in ''

'', first published as "Paradise Razed" in ''The Telegraph'' (London), inspired Sydney businessman Geoffrey Cousins' high-profile campaign to stop the building of Gunns' two billion dollar Bell Bay Pulp Mill. Cousins reprinted 50,000 copies of the essay for letterboxing in the electorates of Australia's environment minister and opposition environment spokesperson. Gunns subsequently collapsed with huge debt, its CEO John Gay found guilty of insider trading, and the pulp mill was never built. Flanagan's essay won the 2008 John Curtin Prize for Journalism. A collection of his non-fiction was published as '' And What Do You Do, Mr Gable?'' (2011). In 2015 he published ''Notes on an Exodus'', on the Syrian refugee crisis, arising out of visiting refugee camps in Lebanon, Greece, and meeting refugees in Serbia. The book also features sketches made by the noted Australian artist

Ben Quilty Ben Quilty (born 1973) is an Australian artist and social commentator, who has won a series of painting prizes: the 2014 Prudential Eye Award, 2011 Archibald Prize, and 2009 Doug Moran National Portrait Prize. He has been described as one of Au ...

, who travelled with Flanagan to meet the refugees.

Film

The 1998 film of '' The Sound of One Hand Clapping'', written and directed by Flanagan, was nominated for the

Golden Bear The Golden Bear (german: Goldener Bär) is the highest prize awarded for the best film at the Berlin International Film Festival. The bear is the heraldic animal of Berlin, featured on both the coat of arms and flag of Berlin. History The winn ...

at that year's

Berlin Film Festival The Berlin International Film Festival (german: Internationale Filmfestspiele Berlin), usually called the Berlinale (), is a major international film festival held annually in Berlin, Germany. Founded in 1951 and originally run in June, the festi ...

. He worked with

Baz Luhrmann Mark Anthony Luhrmann (born 17 September 1962), known professionally as Baz Luhrmann, is an Australian film director, producer, writer and actor. With projects spanning film, television, opera, theatre, music and recording industries, he is re ...

as a writer on the 2008 film ''

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

''.

Personal life

Flanagan is an ambassador for the

Indigenous Literacy Foundation The Indigenous Literacy Foundation (ILF) is an Australian not-for-profit founded in 2011 that works to address the educational disadvantages faced by Indigenous Australian children and young people by providing access to books and literacy progr ...

, to which he donated his $40,000 prize money on winning the Australian Prime Minister's Literary Prize in 2014. A painting of Richard Flanagan by artist

Geoffrey Dyer Geoffrey Dyer (1947 – 7 October 2020) was an Australian artist. He was born and died in Hobart, Tasmania. Career He won the Archibald Prize in 2003 with a portrait of Richard Flanagan. He was a finalist of the 2011 Archibald Prize The Ar ...

won the 2003

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, J. F. Archib ...

. A rapid on the

Franklin River The Franklin River is a major perennial river located in the Central Highlands and western regions of Tasmania, Australia. The river is located in the Franklin-Gordon Wild Rivers National Park at the mid northern area of the Tasmanian Wilder ...

, Flanagan's Surprise, is named after him. He was made an Honorary Citizen of Oxford, Mississippi, the home town of William Faulkner, in 2014. Flanagan lives in Hobart, Tasmania with his Slovenian-born wife Majda (née Smolej) and has three daughters, Rosie, Jean and Eliza. His life was the subject of a BAFTA award-winning BBC documentary, ''Life After Death''.

Works

Novels

* ''

'' (1994) * '' The Sound of One Hand Clapping'' (1997) * '' Gould's Book of Fish: A Novel in Twelve Fish'' (2001) * ''

'' (2006) * '' Wanting'' (2008) * ''The Narrow Road to the Deep North'' (2013) * ''First Person'' (2017) * ''The Living Sea of Waking Dreams'' (2020)

Non-fiction

* (1985) ''A Terrible Beauty: History of the Gordon River Country'' * (1990) ''The Rest of the World Is Watching: Tasmania and the Greens'' (co-editor) * (1991) ''Codename Iago: The Story of John Friedrich'' (co-writer) * (1991) ''"Parish-Fed Bastards": A History of the Politics of the Unemployed in Britain, 1884–1939'' * (2011) ''And What Do You Do, Mr Gable?'' * (2015) ''Notes on an Exodus'' * (2018) ''Seize the Fire: Three Speeches'' *(2021) ''Toxic: The Rotting Underbelly of the Tasmania Salmon Industry''

Films

* (1998) '' The Sound of One Hand Clapping'' (director and screenwriter) * (2008) ''

'' (co-writer)

Awards and honours

* (1996) National Fiction Award for ''

'' * (1995) Victorian Premier's Prize for Best First Fiction (for ''Death of a River Guide'') * (1998) National Booksellers award for Best Book for '' The Sound of One Hand Clapping'' * (1998) Victorian Premier's Prize for Best Novel ''The Sound of One hand Clapping'' * (2002) Australian Literary Society Gold Medal (for ''Gould's Book of Fish: A Novel in Twelve Fish'') * (2002)

Victorian Premier's 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 vi ...

for ''Gould's Book of Fish: A Novel in Twelve Fish'' * (2002) The Commonwealth Writers' Prize (for ''Gould's Book of Fish: A Novel in Twelve Fish'') * (2008) Western Australian Premier's Literary Award for Fiction (for ''Wanting'') * (2009) Queensland Premier's Literary Award for Fiction (for ''Wanting'') * (2011) Tasmania Book Prize (for ''Wanting'') * (2014) Western Australian Premier's Literary Award for Fiction (for ''The Narrow Road to the Deep North'') * (2014) Queensland Premier's Literary Award for Fiction (for ''The Narrow Road to the Deep North'') * (2014) The Man Booker Prize for Fiction (for ''The Narrow Road to the Deep North'') * (2014) Australian Prime Minister's Literary Prize (for ''The Narrow Road to the Deep North'') * (2015) Margaret Scott Prize (for ''The Narrow Road to the Deep North'') * (2016) The Athens Prize for Literature (for ''The Narrow Road to the Deep North'') * (2016) Lire Prix du meilleur livre étranger (for ''The Narrow Road to the Deep North'') *(2019) Honorary Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities (FAHA) *(2020) Honorary Fellow of the Modern Languages Association

References

External links

'Life After Death' (2015)
BBC documentary on Flanagan's life
Joyce Carol Oates on Flanagan's works
at New York Review of Books
Richard Flanagan articles at the Guardian
*

with

Phillip Adams Phillip Adams, Philip Adams, or Phil Adams may refer to: Sports * Phillip Adams (American football) (1988–2021), American football cornerback * Phillip Adams (sport shooter) (born 1945), Australian pistol shooter * Phil Adams (cricketer) (born 1 ...

Late Night Live ''Late Night Live'' is a radio program broadcast by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's Radio National and podcast and streamed over the World Wide Web. Since 1991, the program has been hosted by farmer, writer and public intellectual P ...

ABC Radio National Radio National, known on-air as RN, is an Australia-wide public service broadcasting radio network run by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). From 1947 until 1985, the network was known as ABC Radio 2. History 1937: Predecessors an ...

Articles and videos
at

Conversation with

Richard Fidler Richard is a male given name. It originates, via Old French, from Old Frankish and is a compound of the words descending from Proto-Germanic ''*rīk-'' 'ruler, leader, king' and ''*hardu-'' 'strong, brave, hardy', and it therefore means 'stron ...

on ABC Radio {{DEFAULTSORT:Flanagan, Richard 1961 births Living people 20th-century Australian novelists 20th-century Australian male writers 21st-century Australian novelists Australian male novelists Australian non-fiction writers Australian Rhodes Scholars Australian film directors Writers from Tasmania Alumni of Worcester College, Oxford University of Tasmania alumni Booker Prize winners ALS Gold Medal winners Australian people of Irish descent People from Longford, Tasmania 21st-century Australian male writers Deaf writers Deaf people from Australia Fellows of the Australian Academy of the Humanities Male non-fiction writers