Suneeta Peres da Costa is an acclaimed Australian author best known for her

tragicomic Tragicomedy is a literary genre that blends aspects of both tragic and comic forms. Most often seen in dramatic literature, the term can describe either a tragic play which contains enough comic elements to lighten the overall mood or a serious ...

novel, ''Homework'' (1999) and a novella, ''Saudade'' (2018). She began her career as a playwright and also publishes poetry, non-fiction and literary criticism.

Life

Peres da Costa was born 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 ...

, New South Wales, Australia. Of Goan heritage, her work references Goan and subcontinental culture, history, families, diaspora and postcolonialism. She has also written on asylum seeker justice in Australia and women and

endometriosis Endometriosis is a disease of the female reproductive system in which cells similar to those in the endometrium, the layer of tissue that normally covers the inside of the uterus, grow outside the uterus. Most often this is on the ovaries, f ...

. She graduated with First Class Honours and the University Medal from the Bachelor of Arts in Communication at 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 ...

, where she later taught creative writing. Among her own teachers, to whom she has paid homage, were the late Martin Harrison and Glenda Adams. She was a

Fulbright Scholar The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright–Hays Program, is one of several United States Cultural Exchange Programs with the goal of improving intercultural relations, cultural diplomacy, and intercultural competence between the people of ...

and received a Master of Fine Arts in Writing from

Sarah Lawrence College Sarah Lawrence College is a Private university, private liberal arts college in Yonkers, New York. The college models its approach to education after the Supervision system, Oxford/Cambridge system of one-on-one student-faculty tutorials. Sara ...

, New York. She pursued doctoral studies on

James Joyce James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish novelist, poet, and literary critic. He contributed to the modernist avant-garde movement and is regarded as one of the most influential and important writers of ...

at the

University of Sydney The University of Sydney (USYD), also known as Sydney University, or informally Sydney Uni, is a public research university located in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and is one of the country's si ...

.Suneeta Peres da Costa

Austlit AustLit: The Australian Literature Resource (also known as AustLit: Australian Literature Gateway; and AustLit: The Resource for Australian Literature), usually referred to simply as AustLit, is an internet-based, non-profit collaboration betwee ...

Career

Peres da Costa was twenty-three years old when her tragicomic novel ''Homework'', about a dysfunctional

Goan Goans ( kok, गोंयकार, Romi Konkani: , pt, Goeses) is the demonym used to describe the people native to Goa, India, who form an ethno-linguistic group resulting from the assimilation of Indo-Aryan, Dravidian, Indo-Portuguese, and ...

migrant family set in suburban

, was published internationally by Bloomsbury. It was translated into German by Rowohlt, and shortlisted for the Dobbie Literary Award. Her plays include ''I am an Island'', ''Watermark'', ''Angelina's Song'', ''Children See Everything'', ''Fire'', ''Water''. Two biographical works, ''The Art of Straying'' (which imagines the last night in the life of cultural philosopher,

Walter Benjamin Walter Bendix Schönflies Benjamin (; ; 15 July 1892 – 26 September 1940) was a German Jewish philosopher, cultural critic and essayist. An eclectic thinker, combining elements of German idealism, Romanticism, Western Marxism, and Jewish mys ...

) and ''Estranged Muse'' (on James Joyce's daughter) were also produced by 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 ...

. Her 2018

novella A novella is a narrative prose fiction whose length is shorter than most novels, but longer than most short stories. The English word ''novella'' derives from the Italian ''novella'' meaning a short story related to true (or apparently so) facts ...

on the subject of

saudade ''Saudade'' (, , , ; plural ''saudades'') is an emotional state of melancholic or profoundly nostalgic longing for something that one loves despite it not necessarily being real. It often carries a repressed knowledge that the object of long ...

, follows Maria, a young girl from a Goan immigrant family, growing up in a political hierarchy of racism and colonialism in

Portuguese Angola Portuguese Angola refers to Angola during the historic period when it was a territory under Portuguese rule in southwestern Africa. In the same context, it was known until 1951 as Portuguese West Africa (officially the State of West Africa). I ...

. ''Saudade'' was shortlisted in the fiction category of the

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.Adelaide Festival Awards for Literature 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 ...

and was a finalist in Field Notes' 2020 Tournament of Books. Her writing has appeared in numerous publications and anthologies and she has worked with the

National Gallery of Victoria The National Gallery of Victoria, popularly known as the NGV, is an art museum in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Founded in 1861, it is Australia's oldest and most visited art museum. The NGV houses an encyclopedic art collection across two ...

, the

National Museum of Australia The National Museum of Australia, in the national capital Canberra, preserves and interprets Australia's social history, exploring the key issues, people and events that have shaped the nation. It was formally established by the ''National Muse ...

, the

Australian Theatre for Young People Australian Theatre for Young People (ATYP) is a not-for-profit national youth theatre company located in Woolloomooloo, New South Wales, Australia. It was founded in 1964 by Eleanor Witcombe. History The first committee was formed in 1964 and co ...

Belvoir St Theatre Belvoir is an Australian theatre company based at the Belvoir St Theatre in Sydney, Australia, originally known as Company B. Since 2016 and its artistic director is Eamon Flack. The theatre contains a 330-seat Upstairs Theatre and a 80-seat D ...

Sydney Theatre Company Sydney Theatre Company (STC) is an Australian theatre company based in Sydney, New South Wales. The company performs in The Wharf Theatre at Dawes Point in The Rocks area of Sydney, as well as the Roslyn Packer Theatre (formerly Sydney Thea ...

and ''

Sydney Review of Books The ''Sydney Review of Books'' is an online literary magazine established in 2013. According to the journal's editor James Ley it was created to address shortcomings in Australian book reviews. Awards In 2019 SRB contributor Fiona Kelly McGr ...

'', as well as many international organisations. Her honours include grants, fellowships, awards and residencies from the Literature Board of the

Australia Council for the Arts 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 ...

, the

Copyright Agency Copyright Agency Ltd (CAL) is an Australian not-for-profit public company that facilitates reuse of copyrighted material by third parties, collecting fees and delivering the payments to the creators. Its business names include Viscopy, Rightspor ...

, Asialink Arts, the MacDowell Colony for the Arts, the Corporation of Yaddo, the

Bundanon Trust Arthur Merric Bloomfield Boyd (24 July 1920 – 24 April 1999) was a leading Australian painter of the middle to late 20th century. Boyd's work ranges from impressionist renderings of Australian landscape to starkly expressionist figuration, ...

Varuna, The Writers' House Varuna, The National Writers’ House is Australia's national residential writers' house located in Katoomba, in the Blue Mountains, New South Wales, Australia. The former home of writers Eleanor and Eric Dark, it was gifted to the Australia ...

, the Valparaíso Foundation,

Create NSW Create NSW is a government agency of the Government of New South Wales, that falls within the Enterprise, Investment and Trade cluster. The agency was created on 1 April 2017 from an amalgamation of Arts NSW (ANSW) and Screen NSW. Create NSW is ...

, and the

Marten Bequest The Marten Bequest is an Australian charitable trust, from which scholarships are awarded by the Australia Council for the Arts on behalf of the trustee, Perpetual Limited. The scholarships are known as the Marten Bequest Travelling Scholar ...

. She has been the guest of many writers' festivals, including the

Miami Book Fair The Miami Book Fair is an annual two-day street fair and literary festival organized by Miami Dade College. The fair brings over 300 national and international authors exhibitors to a weeklong gathering and includes pavilions for translation, ...

, the Stuttgarter Buchwochen, the Cervantes Institute Long Night of Literatures, New Delhi and the

Ubud Writers & Readers Festival Ubud Writers & Readers Festival (UWRF) is an annual 4-day literary festival held every October in Ubud on the island of Bali, Indonesia. Established in 2004, it is considered Southeast Asia’s biggest and most meaningful Literary festival, li ...

.http://www.ubudwritersfestival.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/UWRF19_PROGRAM-BOOK_-All-Final-27-September_phoenix_spread.pdf She is currently a Management Committee member of PEN Sydney.

Awards

* 2020 Field Notes' Tournament of Books, finalist for ''Saudade'' * 2020 Adelaide Festival Awards for Literature, shortlisted for ''Saudade'' * 2019 Australian Prime Minister’s Literary Awards, shortlisted for ''Saudade''
2017 Woollhara Digital Literary Award
shortlisted for "A Home in Ananda and the World" * 2000 Dobbie Literary Award, shortlisted for ''Homework'' * 1997

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...

Ian Reed Foundation Prize for Radio Drama * 1996 New South Wales Ministry for the Arts

Philip Parsons Young Playwrights Award The NSW Philip Parsons Fellowship for Emerging Playwrights, formerly the Philip Parsons Young Playwrights Award, is an Australian annual award for early-career playwrights in New South Wales, offered by Belvoir St Theatre and Arts NSW from 199 ...

* 1996

-ICI Young Playwrights' Award * 1995

-ICI Young Playwrights' Award

References

External links

*
"A Home in ''Ananda'' and the World"
''

'', 27 October 2016 {{DEFAULTSORT:Peres da Costa, Suneeta Australian dramatists and playwrights 1976 births Living people