The Garret: Thomas Keneally

Teacher Resource

Publisher's synopsis

Reading Australia presents this Thomas Keneally podcast, with permission from The Garret Podcast.

Thomas Keneally is a legend of the Australian literary scene. He is a novelist, playwright and essayist, and a force to be reckoned with.

He won the Booker Prize in 1982 for Schindler’s Ark (which was made into Schindler’s List by Steven Spielberg), and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize on three other occasions for The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith, Gossip from the Forest, and Confederates.

He has been awarded received Australia’s most prestigious literary prize, the Miles Franklin Literary Award, twice for Bring Larks and Heroes (1967) and Three Cheers For The Paraclete (1968). In addition, An Angel in Australia (2003) was shortlisted and The Widow and Her Hero (2008), The People’s Train (2010) and The Daughters of Mars (2013) were longlisted for the Miles Franklin.

Tom’s non-fiction includes the memoir Searching For Schindler: A Memoir and Three Famines (an LA Times Book of the Year), as well as the histories The Commonwealth Of Thieves: The Improbable Birth of Australia, The Great Shame: An the Triumph of the Irish in the English-speaking World and American Scoundrel: The Life of the Notorious Civil War General Dan Sickles.

For show notes and the transcript, please visit their website.

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Thomas Keneally

Thomas Keneally was born in 1935 and, as well as writing many novels, has shown an increasing interest in producing histories. His history of Irish convictism was entitled The Great Shame and was published in all the English language markets. The same was true of his later work, The Commonwealth of Thieves, which looked upon the penal origins of Australia in a way which sought to make the reader feel close to the experience of individual Aboriginals, convicts and officials. His novels include Bring Larksand Heroes, The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith, Gossip from the Forest, and Schindler’s Ark. He has the won the Miles Franklin Award, the Booker Prize, the Los Angeles Book Prize, the Royal Society of Literature Prize, the Scripter Award of the University of Southern California, the Mondello International Prize and the Helmerich Prize. He lives in Sydney with his wife, and is Number 1 ticket-holder of the Manly-Warringah Rugby League team.

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Further Details

Author Thomas Keneally

Publisher The Garret

Date of Publication 2018

Category Podcast

SCIS number

5459945