Alison Evans (author)

Last updated

Alison Evans
Alison Evans.png
Born
Occupation(s) Novelist and writer
Website www.alisonwritesthings.com

Alison Evans is an Australian novelist and writer. They [1] are a transgender non-binary person who identifies as bisexual, and their work often features queer and transgender characters. [2] [3] [4] Evans grew up in the town of Emerald among the Dandenong Ranges, a setting which went on to heavily influence their work. [5] [6]

Contents

Their first two novellas on Less Than Three Press were 2015's Long Macchiatos and Monsters and 2016's We Go Forward. [7] Since 2017, they have published three young adult novels with Echo Publishing: Ida , Highway Bodies and Euphoria Kids . [8] [9] [10] They won the Victorian Premier's Literary Award in the People's Choice category for Ida in 2018. [3] [11] [12]

Evans has contributed short stories to various anthologies - including Kindred, Hometown Haunts and Everything Under the Moon [7] - and works as both an author and editor of zines, including #EnbyLife with Rae White. [13] They co-edited the 2024 Fremantle Press anthology Avast! Pirate Stories from Transgender Authors with Michael Earp, while also contributing the short story "CHANGELINGS". [14] They have also written non-fiction articles for the ABC, Overland , The Guardian and The Saturday Paper . [15] [16] [2] [3]

In 2024, Evans was one of several authors at the centre of the ongoing State Library Victoria Teen Writing Bootcamp controversy in which a scheduled workshop for children was cancelled by the Library ostensibly due to the need for a "child and cultural safety review". [17] Various Library staff made claims published in The Age and The Guardian that Evans and the other writers' support of Palestine was the actual reason and that the library had engaged in political censorship. [18] [19] [20] These claims were later supported by the release of internal emails from the library. [21]

Bibliography

Novels

Novellas

Short stories

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Terry Deary</span> British childrens author

William Terence Deary is a British children's author of over 200 books, selling over 25 million copies in over 40 languages, best known as the writer of the Horrible Histories series. Since 1994 he has been one of Britain's best-selling authors. In 2012, he was the tenth most-borrowed author in British libraries, and was voted Outstanding Children's Non-Fiction Author of the 20th Century by Books for Keeps magazine.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">LGBTQ themes in horror fiction</span>

LGBTQ themes in horror fiction refers to sexuality in horror fiction that can often focus on LGBTQ+ characters and themes within various forms of media. It may deal with characters who are coded as or who are openly LGBTQ+, or it may deal with themes or plots that are specific to gender and sexual minorities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eleanor Catton</span> New Zealand novelist and screenwriter

Eleanor Catton is a New Zealand novelist and screenwriter. Born in Canada, Catton moved to New Zealand as a child and grew up in Christchurch. She completed a master's degree in creative writing at the International Institute of Modern Letters. Her award-winning debut novel, The Rehearsal, written as her Master's thesis, was published in 2008, and has been adapted into a 2016 film of the same name. Her second novel, The Luminaries, won the 2013 Booker Prize, making Catton the youngest author ever to win the prize and only the second New Zealander. It was subsequently adapted into a television miniseries, with Catton as screenwriter. In 2023, she was named on the Granta Best of Young British Novelists list.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jeff Sparrow</span> Australian writer (born 1969)

Jeff Sparrow is an Australian left-wing writer, editor and socialist activist based in Melbourne, Victoria. He is the co-author of Radical Melbourne: A Secret History and Radical Melbourne 2: The Enemy Within. He is also the author of Communism: A Love Story and Killing: Misadventures in Violence.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Women's Prize for Fiction</span> British prize for novel by female author (1996– )

The Women's Prize for Fiction (previously with sponsor names Orange Prize for Fiction, Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction and Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction is one of the United Kingdom's most prestigious literary prizes. It is awarded annually to a female author of any nationality for the best original full-length novel written in English and published in the United Kingdom in the preceding year. A sister prize, the Women's Prize for Non-Fiction, was launched in 2023.

TheWriters' Prize, previously known as the Rathbones Folio Prize, the Folio Prize and The Literature Prize, is a literary award that was sponsored by the London-based publisher The Folio Society for its first two years, 2014–2015. Starting in 2017, the sponsor was Rathbone Investment Management. At the 2023 award ceremony, it was announced that the prize was looking for new sponsorship as Rathbones would be ending their support. In November 2023, having failed to secure a replacement sponsor, the award's governing body announced its rebrand as The Writers' Prize.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Transgender Archives at the University of Victoria</span>

The Transgender Archives at the University of Victoria is the "largest transgender archive in the world".

Casey Plett is a Canadian writer, best known for her novel Little Fish, her Lambda Literary Award winning short story collection, A Safe Girl to Love, and her Giller Prize-nominated short story collection, A Dream of a Woman. Plett is a transgender woman, and she often centers this experience in her writing.

<i>Melissa</i> (novel) 2015 book by Alex Gino

Melissa, previously published as George until April 2022, is a children's novel about a young transgender girl written by American author Alex Gino. The novel tells the story of Melissa, a fourth-grade girl who is struggling to be herself to the rest of the world. The rest of the world sees Melissa as George, a boy. Melissa uses the class play, Charlotte's Web, to show her mom that she is a girl by switching roles with her best friend, and playing the part of Charlotte. Scholastic first published the novel on August 25, 2015, and it has had a mixed reaction because of its LGBT+ content. In 2021, Gino retitled the novel Melissa.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sophie Labelle</span> Canadian writer and cartoonist

Sophie Labelle is a Canadian cartoonist, public speaker, and writer. She created the webcomic Assigned Male, which draws upon her experiences as a transgender child. She is an activist in the transgender rights movement, and speaks on the subjects of transgender history and transfeminism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Juno Dawson</span> English young adult fiction and non-fiction author (born 1981)

Juno Dawson is an English author of young adult fiction and non-fiction. Dawson's notable works include This Book Is Gay, Mind Your Head, Margot & Me, The Gender Games, Clean, Meat Market, and the series, "Her Majesty's Royal Coven".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hunter Schafer</span> American actress and model (born 1998)

Hunter Schafer is an American actress and model. She first made headlines in 2016 with her activism against the North Carolina bill HB2. In 2017, she started modeling for many worldwide fashion brands. She made her acting debut as transgender high school student Jules Vaughn in the HBO teen drama television series Euphoria (2019–present). Since then, she has had roles in Belle (2022), The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes (2023), Cuckoo (2024), and Kinds of Kindness (2024).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Akwaeke Emezi</span> Nigerian writer and video artist (born 1987)

Akwaeke Emezi is a Nigerian fiction writer and video artist, best known for their novels Freshwater (2018) and Pet and the New York Times bestselling work The Death of Vivek Oji. Emezi is a generalist who writes speculative fiction, romance, memoir, and poetry for both young adults and adults with mostly LGBT themes. Their work has earned them several awards and nominations including the Otherwise Award and Commonwealth Short Story Prize. In 2021, Time featured them as a Next Generation Leader.

Sarah Krasnostein is an American-Australian non-fiction writer.

Evelyn Araluen is an Australian poet and literary editor. She won the 2022 Stella Prize with her first book, Dropbear.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Omar Sakr</span> Australian writer and poet

Omar Sakr is a contemporary Arab Australian poet, novelist and essayist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">State Library Victoria Teen Writing Bootcamp controversy</span> 2024 Australian political controversy

Six writers - Alison Evans, Amie Kaufman, Jinghua Qian, Ariel Slamet Ries, Morgan Rose and Omar Sakr - were scheduled to appear at a series of online Teen Writing Bootcamp events for young people run by the State Library Victoria in March 2024. On 28 February 2024, the entire program was cancelled and indefinitely postponed by the library who cited that a "child and cultural safety" review was necessary at a time of "heightened sensitivities."

<i>Ida</i> (novel) 2017 novel by Alison Evans

Ida is a 2017 young adult novel by Alison Evans. Set in the Dandenong Ranges, it tells the story of Ida Wagner, a young person who begins to encounter her own dopplegangers and realises she can both travel through short increments of time and also shift between parallel universes at will. Many of the novel's characters are transgender, including Daisy who is genderqueer and Frank who is transmasculine.

<i>Highway Bodies</i> 2019 novel by Alison Evans

Highway Bodies is a 2019 young adult post-apocalyptic novel by Alison Evans. It tells the story of a group of young people attempting to survive a zombie apocalypse as a found family in regional Victoria. While grappling with the lack of information and life on the run, they also "navigate issues of friendship, gender, and identity". As is common in Evans' work, many of the characters are queer and transgender.

<i>Euphoria Kids</i> 2020 novel by Alison Evans

Euphoria Kids is a 2020 young adult fantasy novel by Alison Evans. It tells the coming of age story of three transgender young people named Iris, Babs and "the boy". The story contains elements of magical realism, including the presence of witches, dryads and faeries, and that Iris "grew from a seed in the ground" while Babs is "made of fire".

References

  1. "Bibliophile: Ida by Alison Evans". Out in Perth. 16 February 2017. Retrieved 24 November 2024.
  2. 1 2 Evans, Alison (28 February 2017). "My gender didn't exist in fiction when I was growing up – so I wrote myself into existence". The Guardian. Retrieved 24 November 2024.
  3. 1 2 3 Evans, Alison (10 February 2018). "Winning as a non-binary person". The Saturday Paper. Retrieved 24 November 2024.
  4. Gallagher, Alex (16 October 2020). "Why should trans people trust non-trans authors to lead the conversation about our identities?". The Guardian. Retrieved 24 November 2024.
  5. Sloan, Jodie (20 February 2019). "Interview: Highway Bodies author Alison Evans talks representation, non-binary teens, and a very Aussie apocalypse". The AU Review. Retrieved 25 November 2024.
  6. Kerr, Jodie (8 November 2019). "State of euphoria: Alison Evans on 'Euphoria Kids'". Books + Publishing. Retrieved 25 November 2024.
  7. 1 2 "Short stories". Alison Evans official site. Retrieved 24 November 2024.
  8. Woodhead, Cameron (30 January 2017). "Ida review: Alison Evans' YA fiction with a message of tolerance and diversity". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 24 November 2024.
  9. Kavanagh-Ryan, Kit (10 December 2021). "These science fiction and fantasy books centre and celebrate disabled characters". ABC News. Retrieved 24 November 2024.
  10. Gesa-Fatafehi, Meleika (29 February 2020). "Alison Evans - Euphoria Kids". The Saturday Paper. Retrieved 24 November 2024.
  11. Harmon, Steph (1 February 2018). "Sarah Krasnostein wins $125,000 at Australia's richest literary prize". The Guardian. Retrieved 24 November 2024.
  12. Steger, Jason (1 February 2018). "No trauma as Sarah Krasnostein wins $100,000 Victorian Prize for Literature". The Guardian. Retrieved 24 November 2024.
  13. "Zines". Alison Evans official site. Retrieved 24 November 2024.
  14. "Avast! Pirate Stories from Transgender Authors". Fremantle Press. Retrieved 25 November 2024.
  15. Evans, Alison (2 August 2020). "After Harry Potter: Five children's books that celebrate diversity". ABC. Retrieved 24 November 2024.
  16. Evans, Alison (1 June 2020). "Being a caretaker: a response to JK Rowling". Overland. Retrieved 24 November 2024.
  17. Burke, Kelly (6 March 2024). "Writers puzzled after State Library Victoria cancels workshops for teens citing 'child and cultural safety'". The Guardian. Retrieved 15 March 2024.
  18. O'Brien, Kerrie (29 April 2024). "Top writers boycott State Library Victoria over accusations of censorship". The Age. Retrieved 29 April 2024.
  19. O'Brien, Kerrie (14 March 2024). "State Library revolt over treatment of pro-Palestine writers". The Age. Retrieved 15 March 2024.
  20. Beazley, Jordyn (14 March 2024). "State Library Victoria staff accuse management of 'censorship and discrimination' over pro-Palestine authors controversy". The Guardian. Retrieved 25 November 2024.
  21. Beazley, Jordyn (17 July 2024). "State Library Victoria surveyed presenters' social media for political content before terminating contracts, emails show". The Guardian. Retrieved 18 July 2024.