Rebecca Giggs is a Perth-based Australian nonfiction writer, known for Fathoms: The World in the Whale.

Career

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Giggs studied at the University of Western Australia. She holds an LLB, BA Arts (Hons) and a PhD in ecological literary studies conferred in 2014.[1]

Giggs is an honorary fellow at the Macquarie University in Sydney.[2] She was awarded the 2017 Mick Dark flagship fellowship by Varuna for "The Whale in the Room", the working title for Fathoms.[3] She won support from Writers Victoria through the Neilma Sidney Literary Travel Fund to visit the Rachel Carson Centre for Environment and Society in Munich, Germany as a writing fellow in 2018.[4]

As an essayist, Giggs has contributed to The Atlantic on science subjects from "Why We're Afraid of Bats" to "Human Drugs Are Polluting the Water—And Animals Are Swimming in It".[5]

Her first book, Fathoms: The World in the Whale, was published in 2020 worldwide by Scribe[6] and by Simon & Schuster in the USA.[7]

Awards and recognition

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Kirkus Reviews named Fathoms in their "10 Top Summer Reads in Nonfiction"[8] and described the book as "a thoughtful, ambitiously crafted appeal for the preservation of marine mammals".[9] In November 2020 Giggs won the Nib Literary Award[10] and in February 2021 she won the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Nonfiction for Fathoms.[11] Her book was also shortlisted for the 2020 Kirkus Prize for Nonfiction[12] and the PEN/E. O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award.[13] Fathoms won the Premier's Prize for an Emerging Writer at the 2020 Western Australian Premier's Book Awards[14] and was shortlisted for the 2021 Stella Prize.[15] In 2021 Fathoms was shortlisted for the Wainwright Prize, alongside David Attenborough's A Life on Our Planet and others, in the Global Conservation Writing category.[16] She was shortlisted for the 2021 Bragg UNSW Press Prize for Science Writing for "Soundings", an extract from Fathoms.[17][18]

References

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  1. ^ "Award Verification Service: Rebecca April Giggs". The University of Western Australia. Retrieved 26 August 2021.
  2. ^ "Rebecca Giggs". Macquarie University. Retrieved 11 February 2021.
  3. ^ "Varuna announces recipients of 2017 Residency Fellowships". Books+Publishing. 4 October 2016. Retrieved 11 February 2021.
  4. ^ "Writers Victoria announces Neilma Sidney Literary Travel Fund round-two recipients". Books+Publishing. 11 April 2018. Retrieved 11 February 2021.
  5. ^ Giggs, Rebecca. "Rebecca Giggs". The Atlantic. Retrieved 11 February 2021.
  6. ^ Giggs, Rebecca (2020). Fathoms: The world in the whale. Brunswick, Victoria: Scribe Publications. ISBN 978-1-925321-38-8. OCLC 1153440206.
  7. ^ Giggs, Rebecca (2020). Fathoms: The world in the whale (First ed.). New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 978-1-9821-2069-6. OCLC 1124313331.
  8. ^ Liebetrau, Eric (6 July 2020). "10 Top Summer Reads in Nonfiction". Kirkus Reviews. Retrieved 11 February 2021.
  9. ^ "Fathoms: The World in the Whale". Kirkus Reviews. 15 May 2020. Retrieved 12 February 2021.
  10. ^ "'Fathoms' wins Nib Literary Award". Books+Publishing. 12 November 2020. Retrieved 11 February 2021.
  11. ^ "Giggs wins ALA Andrew Carnegie Medal". Books+Publishing. 9 February 2020. Retrieved 11 February 2021.
  12. ^ "The 2020 Kirkus Prize". www.bookreporter.com. Retrieved 11 February 2021.
  13. ^ "Announcing the 2021 PEN America Literary Awards Finalists". PEN America. 10 February 2021. Retrieved 11 February 2021.
  14. ^ "WA Premier's Book Awards announced". Books+Publishing. 26 August 2021. Retrieved 26 August 2021.
  15. ^ "Stella Prize 2021 shortlist announced". Books+Publishing. 25 March 2021. Retrieved 25 March 2021.
  16. ^ "Sethi, Winn and Rebanks shortlisted for Wainwright Prize". The Bookseller. 21 August 2021. Retrieved 5 August 2021.
  17. ^ "Rebecca Giggs shortlisted for Bragg Prize for Science Writing | Rebecca-giggs-shortlisted-for-bragg-prize-for-science-writing | Scribe Publications". scribepublications.com.au. 13 October 2021. Retrieved 15 October 2021.
  18. ^ "Bragg Prize for Science Writing shortlist announced". Books+Publishing. 12 October 2021. Retrieved 15 October 2021.
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