Philip McLaren (born 1943) is an Aboriginal Australian author and academic known for literary fiction, detective stories and thrillers.
Biography
editMcLaren 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
editMcLaren 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.