Philip McLaren
Philip McLaren (born 1943) is an Aboriginal Australian author and academic known for literary fiction, detective stories and thrillers.
Biography[edit]
McLaren is an Aboriginal Australian of the Kamilaroi people. Both of his parents, who have some Scottish heritage, are from Coonabarabran, New South Wales.[1] He was born in Redfern, Sydney.[2]
He holds a Doctor of Creative Arts degree.[3]
He has worked in a range of occupations, including as an illustrator, designer, animator, sculptor, copywriter and creative director in television, advertising and film production companies. Over a period of 12 years he lived and worked in Canada, USA, England, New Zealand and the Bahamas.[2]
He has delivered lectures or readings at a range of institutions and festivals across the world, including the University of Alberta in Canada; the University of Sydney; National Library of Australia; State Library of New South Wales; Melbourne Writers Festival; Adelaide Writers' Week; Sydney Writers' Festival; Byron Bay Writers Festival; New Zealand's inaugural Toi Maori Festival; and was invited by the Goethe-Institut to speak at their inaugural Writers’ Festival at the Haus der Kulturen der Welt in Berlin.[4]
McLaren was a member of the working party involved in the creation of the First Nations Australia Writers Network (FNAWN) in 2012.[5]
He has worked as a lecturer at Southern Cross University.[2][3]
He lived in the Byron Bay area of New South Wales as of 2009.[2]
Writing career[edit]
McLaren is known for literary fiction, detective stories and thrillers. He has also written non-fiction, social commentary, screenplays and academic essays.[6] Four of his novels have been translated and distributed internationally.[7]
Awards[edit]
- Sweet Water – Stolen Land received the 1992 David Unaipon Award for Australian Indigenous literature.[7]
- Murder in Utopia (published in some countries as Utopia) won the 2010 Récit de l'Ailleurs (meaning "story from elsewhere") prize,[8] voted by students at Lycée-Collège d'État Émile Letournel, a high school in the French overseas territory of Saint Pierre and Miquelon.[9] It was also nominated at the Ned Kelly Awards for crime writing.[3]
Books[edit]
- Sweet Water – Stolen Land (University of Queensland Press, 1993) – historical fiction
- Scream Black Murder (HarperCollins, 1995) – crime fiction[10]
- Lightning Mine (HarperCollins, 1999) – thriller
- There’ll be New Dreams (Magabala Books, 2001) – historical fiction
- Murder in Utopia
- West of Eden
References[edit]
- ^ "About". Philip McLaren. Retrieved 21 February 2021.
- ^ a b c d "Philip McLaren". Melbourne Writers Festival. 2009. Archived from the original on 10 March 2011. Retrieved 6 February 2014.
- ^ a b c "Philip McLaren". AustLit. 28 September 2017. Retrieved 21 February 2021.
- ^ "Author profile: Philip McLaren". Macquarie PEN Anthology of Australian Literature Project. Retrieved 21 February 2021.
- ^ Reed-Gilbert, Kerry (13 July 2018). "A short history of the First Nations Australia Writers Network". Overland literary journal. Retrieved 21 February 2021.
- ^ Ramsland, John; Marie Ramsland (2012). "Arthur Upfield and Philip McLaren: Pioneering Partners in Australian Ethnographic Crime Fiction". In Jean Anderson; Carolina Miranda; Barbara Pezzotti (eds.). The Foreign in International Crime Fiction: Transcultural Representations. Bloomsbury. pp. 99ff. ISBN 9781441177032.
- ^ a b Heiss, Anita (2003). To Talk Straight: Publishing Indigenous Literature. Aboriginal Studies Press. p. 148. ISBN 9780855754440.
- ^ The West Australian (25 March 2010). "Utopia wins French prize". The West Australian. Retrieved 21 February 2021.
- ^ "Le prix "Récit de l'Ailleurs" fête ses 10 ans – Saint-Pierre et Miquelon la 1ère". Saint-Pierre et Miquelon la 1ère (in French). 22 January 2019. Retrieved 21 February 2021.
- ^ Tony Smith (2002), "Keeper of Dreams: review — Review of Scream Black Murder Philip McLaren 1995 novel ; There'll be New Dreams Philip McLaren 2001 novel", Australian Book Review, issue 238
Further reading[edit]
- Renes, Cornelis Martin (14 December 2016). "Philip McLaren and the Indigenous-Australian Crime Novel". Coolabah (20: Postcolonial Crime Fiction). Universitat de Barcelona.
Coolabah is the official journal of the Observatori: Centre d' Estudis Australians i Transnacionals / The Australian and Transnational Studies Centre at the Universitat de Barcelona.
