Catherine Ruth Jennings (20 May 1948 – 1 May 2021) was an Australian poet,

essay 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 a ...

ist,

memoir A memoir (; , ) is any nonfiction narrative writing based in the author's personal memories. The assertions made in the work are thus understood to be factual. While memoir has historically been defined as a subcategory of biography or autobi ...

ist, and novelist.

Biography

Jennings grew up on a farm near

Griffith, New South Wales Griffith is a major regional city in the Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area that is located in the north-western part of the Riverina region of New South Wales, known commonly as the food bowl of Australia. It is also the seat of the City of Griffith ...

. She attended 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 ...

in the late 1960s, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree with honours. She was active in feminist and left wing-movements, in particular gaining notoriety for an incendiary speech given before a Vietnam Moratorium march in 1970 – a speech that is credited with signalling the beginning of the second wave of feminism in Australia. She also edited ''Mother I'm Rooted'', an anthology of women poets which was the object of much controversy. She moved to New York City in 1979, where she wrote for numerous magazines and newspapers, in addition to a stint on Wall Street as a speechwriter.

Personal life and death

In 1983, Jennings met

Bob Cato Robert G. Cato (September 5, 1923 – March 19, 1999) was an American photographer and graphic designer whose work in record album cover design contributed to the development of music and popular culture for five decades. He was vice president o ...

, a graphic designer, photographer, and collagist who helped turn the record album into an important form of contemporary art. They were married in 1987; he died in March 1999. Jennings died on 1 May 2021, in New York.

Works

Her poetry and short stories were well received, but she came into her own with her novels. Her first, ''Snake'' was described variously as "lethal and fast-moving" (''

Publishers Weekly ''Publishers Weekly'' (''PW'') is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers, and literary agents. Published continuously since 1872, it has carried the tagline, "The International News Magazine of B ...

''), "a narrative of pure anguish" (''

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 ...

''), and "possessing a holographic shimmer" (''

The New York Times Book Review ''The New York Times Book Review'' (''NYTBR'') is a weekly paper-magazine supplement to the Sunday edition of ''The New York Times'' in which current non-fiction and fiction books are reviewed. It is one of the most influential and widely rea ...

''). It was reported to have just missed the

Booker Prize The Booker Prize, formerly known as the Booker Prize for Fiction (1969–2001) and the Man Booker Prize (2002–2019), is a Literary award, literary prize awarded each year for the best novel written in English and published in the United King ...

shortlist. ''Moral Hazard'' has been called "humane and unsparing; witty, unsettling, and wildly intelligent" by

Shirley Hazzard Shirley Hazzard (30 January 1931 – 12 December 2016) was an Australian-American novelist, short story writer, and essayist. She was born in Australia and also held U.S. citizenship. Hazzard's 1970 novel '' The Bay of Noon'' was shortlisted ...

, author of ''The Transit of Venus''. Jennings was awarded the Christina Stead Prize for fiction for ''Moral Hazard'', which was also shortlisted for the 2003

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 ...

, the Los Angeles Times Fiction Prize, and the Tasmania Pacific Region Prize. ''Snake'' was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year, as was ''Moral Hazard''. Both books contain strong autobiographical elements, ''Snake'' being about a girl growing up on a

Riverina The Riverina is an agricultural region of south-western New South Wales, Australia. The Riverina is distinguished from other Australian regions by the combination of flat plains, warm to hot climate and an ample supply of water for irrigation ...

farm in the 1950s, and ''Moral Hazard'' about a couple facing Alzheimer's in the husband while the wife works as a speechwriter on Wall Street. In 2008, she published ''Stanley and Sophie'', a memoir ostensibly about her dogs but also about life in New York City after

9/11 The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial ...

, politics in the US and her encounters with two macaques in Bali at the time of the 2005 bombing there. In March 2010, she published "Trouble", an autobiographical collection of her best work from the last four decades, covering topics from politics, morality, finance, feminism and the writing life. Jennings is also known for writing outspoken essays and op-eds on the state of fiction, the direction of feminism, malfeasance in the financial industry, and the abuse of language in the business world. Andrew Field, a prominent Nabokov scholar, describes Jennings as a "ferocious truth-teller", He also cites her "humor, her obdurate individuality, and her willingness to say what other people won't."

Awards and nominations

Bibliography

Novels

*''Snake'' (1996) *''

Moral Hazard In economics, a moral hazard is a situation where an economic actor has an incentive to increase its exposure to risk because it does not bear the full costs of that risk. For example, when a corporation is insured, it may take on higher risk ...

'' (2002)

Short fiction

;Collections *''Women Falling Down in the Street'' (1990)

Poetry

;Collections *''Come to Me My Melancholy Baby'' (1975) *''Cats, Dogs and Pitchforks'' (1993) ;Anthologies (edited) *''Mother I'm Rooted'' (1975)

Articles

"Best Business Books of the Millennium: Business Novels"
''

Strategy+Business Strategy (from Greek στρατηγία ''stratēgia'', "art of troop leader; office of general, command, generalship") is a general plan to achieve one or more long-term or overall goals under conditions of uncertainty. In the sense of the "art ...

'' Q4 2001 *"Doublethink on Wall Street", ''Financial Times'', 10 May 2002 *"The Hypocrisy of Wall Street Culture", ''The New York Times'', 14 July 2002 *"Among the Strong and the Shrewd", ''Australian Financial Review'', 2 May 2003 *"Gutless Fiction", ''Australian Financial Review'', 26 August 2005 *"The Serious Business of Literature", ''Los Angeles Times Book Review'', 11 May 2003 *"Less is More", ''Prospect'' magazine, February 2003 *"To Hell with the Future", ''Australian Financial Review'', May 2009 * A recording of the lecture i
available

"Letting in the Sunlight"
''The Business Writer''
"An Otter's Life: Learning to Swim"
''The Monthly'' magazine, December 2010 – January 2011 issue

Essay collections

*''Save Me, Joe Louis'' (1988) *''Bad Manners'' (1993)

Memoirs

*''Stanley and Sophie'' (2008) *''Trouble'' (2010)

References

External links

Portrait of Kate JenningsKate Jennings at Random House AustraliaKate Jennings. Interview with Julie McCrossin
Radio National, ''Life Matters'', 23 May 2002.
Interview with Elliot Perlman
May 2008

by Carol Shields, ''New York Times Book Review'', 11 May 1997 (review of ''Snake'')
''Moral Hazard''
Amanda Craig, ''New Statesman'', 15 April 2002 {{DEFAULTSORT:Jennings, Kate 1948 births 2021 deaths 20th-century Australian novelists 20th-century Australian short story writers 20th-century Australian women writers 20th-century essayists 21st-century Australian novelists 21st-century Australian short story writers 21st-century Australian women 21st-century essayists ALS Gold Medal winners Australian essayists Australian feminist writers Australian poets Australian women short story writers Australian women novelists Australian women poets Australian women essayists People from the Riverina University of Sydney alumni Writers from New South Wales Australian women memoirists