Joan London (Australian author)

Joan Elizabeth London (born 1948) is an Australian author of short stories, screenplays and novels.

Joan London
London in 2015
Born	Joan Elizabeth London 1948 (age 76–77) Perth, Western Australia
Language	English
Nationality	Australian
Alma mater	University of Western Australia
Notable works	Gilgamesh, The Good Parents
Notable awards	Christina Stead Prize for Fiction, Age Book of the Year Fiction Award, Patrick White Award

Biography

She graduated from the University of Western Australia, having studied English and French; she has taught English as a second language and is a bookseller.^[1] She lives in Fremantle, Western Australia.^[2]

London is the author of two collections of stories. The first, Sister Ships and Other Stories, won The Age Book of the Year (1986), and the second, Letter to Constantine, won the Steele Rudd Award and the Western Australian Premier's Book Award for Fiction (both in 1994). The two were published together as The New Dark Age.^[2] She has published three novels, Gilgamesh (2001), The Good Parents (2008) and The Golden Age (2014).

She was awarded the Patrick White Award and the Nita Kibble Literary Award in 2015.^[3]

Awards and nominations

Year	Work	Award	Category	Result	Ref.
1986	Sister Ships	The Age Book of the Year Awards	Book of the Year	Won
			Fiction Book of the Year	Won
		Western Australia Week Literary Award	—	Won
1994	Letter to Constantine	Queensland Literary Awards	Steele Rudd Award	Won
		Western Australian Premier's Book Awards	Fiction	Won	[4]
2001	Gilgamesh	Western Australian Premier's Book Awards	Fiction	Shortlisted
2002		The Age Book of the Year Awards	Fiction Book of the Year	Won
		Miles Franklin Award	—	Shortlisted
		New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards	Fiction	Shortlisted
2003		Tasmania Pacific Rim Region Prize	—	Shortlisted
2004		Orange Prize for Fiction	—	Longlisted
2009	The Good Parents	New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards	Christina Stead Prize for Fiction	Won
2015	—	Patrick White Award	—	Won	[5]
	The Golden Age	Miles Franklin Award	—	Shortlisted	[6]
	The Golden Age	Nita Kibble Literary Award	Nita Kibble Literary Award	Won
	The Golden Age	Prime Minister's Literary Award	—	Won	[7]

Bibliography

Short stories

• Sister Ships and Other Stories (1986)
• Letter to Constantine (1993)
• New Dark Age (2004)

Novels

• Gilgamesh (2001)
• The Good Parents (2008)
• The Golden Age (2014)

References

1. Wilde, Hooton and Andrews (1994) p. 475-6
2. "The Sydney Writers' Festival 2008". Archived from the original on 31 July 2008. Retrieved 13 April 2008.
3. "2015 Patrick White Literary Award announced". Archived from the original on 22 August 2018. Retrieved 28 October 2015.
4. ""Prodigal poet homoured"". The Sydney Morning Herald, 21 October 1994, p14. ProQuest 2527564281. Retrieved 12 January 2025.
5. ""London wins 2015 Patrick White Literary Award"". Books+Publishing, 29 October 2015. Retrieved 27 August 2023.
6. ""Miles Franklin Literary Award 2015 shortlist: Hartnett and London lead the field"". SMH, 18 May 2015. Retrieved 6 April 2024.
7. "2015 Prime Minister's Literary Award winner". Australian Government - Department of Communications and the Arts. Archived from the original on 13 January 2016. Retrieved 1 January 2016.

External links

• Joan London at Random House Australia
• Middlemiss Page on Gilgamesh
• Review of The Golden Age, with portrait

Critical studies and reviews of London's work

• Goldsworthy, Kerryn (September 2014). "Liminality". Australian Book Review. 364: 11. Review of The Golden Age.
• Book Review (15 June 2016).Kirkus Reviews. Review of The Golden Age.

See also

• Wilde, W., Hooton, J. & Andrews, B (1994) The Oxford Companion of Australian Literature 2nd ed. South Melbourne, Oxford University Press