Ceridwen Dovey

Last updated

Ceridwen Dovey
Born1980 (age 43–44)
Pietermaritzburg, South Africa
Occupation Novelist
NationalitySouth Africa, Australia
Period2008-present
Website
ceridwendovey.com

Ceridwen Dovey (born 1980) is a South African and Australian social anthropologist and author. In 2009 she was named a 5 under 35 nominee by the National Book Foundation [1] and in 2020 won The Bragg UNSW Press Prize for Science Writing. [2]

Contents

Early years and education

Dovey was born in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa, and grew up between South Africa and Australia. Her parents derived her name from one of the protagonists in Richard Llewellyn's 1939 novel set in Wales, How Green Was My Valley . Dovey attended high school in Australia at North Sydney Girls High School, before going to the United States in 1999 to study at Harvard University as an undergraduate where she completed a joint degree in Anthropology and Visual & Environmental Studies in 2003. During her time at Harvard, Dovey made documentaries that highlighted the relationships between farmers and rural labourers in post-apartheid South Africa. She made a documentary about wine farm labour relations in the Western Cape of South Africa, Aftertaste, as part of her honors thesis. [3]

Career

In 2004 Dovey worked briefly for the television programme NOW with Bill Moyers at Channel Thirteen in New York City before moving to South Africa to study creative writing at the University of Cape Town. She wrote her first novel Blood Kin as her thesis for an MA in creative writing under the supervision of poet Stephen Watson, then did her graduate studies in Social Anthropology at New York University. She moved back to Sydney, Australia in 2010. From 2010 to 2015 she worked for the Institute for Sustainable Futures at the University of Technology Sydney. She writes non-fiction for various publications, including newyorker.com and The Monthly. [4] [5]

Works

Dovey's first novel, Blood Kin was published by Atlantic Books (U.K.), Penguin (South Africa) and Penguin (Australia) in July 2007, and by Viking in North America in March 2008. It was published in fifteen countries, including Germany, France, Italy, the Netherlands, and Sweden. It was shortlisted in 2007 for the Dylan Thomas Prize and the U.K.'s John Llewellyn Rhys Prize for British/Commonwealth authors under the age of 35 and was shortlisted in 2008 for the Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best First Book (Africa). It tells the story of a fictional military coup from the perspective of the overthrown leader's portraitist, chef, and barber. The novel is deliberately ambiguous in its setting. [6]

Dovey's second book, Only the Animals is a collection of ten short stories about the souls of ten animals caught up in human conflicts over the last century. [7] It won the inaugural 2014 Readings New Australian Writing Award and the People's Choice for Fiction Award (joint with Joan London's The Golden Age) at the NSW Premier's Literary Awards, as well as the Queensland Literary Awards Steele Rudd Award for a short story collection. [8] [9]

Dovey's third novel, In the Garden of the Fugitives, was published in early 2018. [10]

Writers on Writers: Ceridwen Dovey on J.M. Coetzee was published in October 2018 as part of Black Inc.'s Writers on Writers series. [11]

Life After Truth is Dovey's fourth novel and was published in November 2020. [12]

Personal life

She lives in Sydney, Australia, with her husband, Blake Munting, and two children. Her parents live in Sydney and her sister, Lindiwe Dovey, is Professor of Film and Screen Studies at SOAS University of London. [13]

Bibliography

Books

Critical studies and reviews of Dovey's work

Life after truth

Awards and recognition

Dovey was a recipient of a Sidney Myer Creative Fellowship, an award of A$160,000 given to mid-career creatives and thought leaders. [20]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anna Funder</span> Australian author (born 1966)

Anna Funder is an Australian author. She is the author of Stasiland, All That I Am, the novella The Girl With the Dogs and, about George Orwell's first wife, Wifedom.

James Bradley is an Australian novelist and critic. Born in Adelaide, South Australia, he trained as a lawyer before becoming a writer.

Tegan Bennett Daylight is an Australian writer of novels and short stories. She is best known as a fiction writer, teacher and critic, publishing both books of non-fiction and numerous short stories. She has also written several books for children and teenagers. She is the author of Bombora (1996), What Falls Away (2001) and Safety (2006).

Carmelina Marchetta is an Australian writer and teacher. Marchetta is best known as the author of teen novels, Looking for Alibrandi, Saving Francesca and On the Jellicoe Road. She has twice been awarded the CBCA Children's Book of the Year Award: Older Readers, in 1993 and 2004. For Jellicoe Road she won the 2009 Michael L. Printz Award from the American Library Association, recognizing the year's best book for young adults.

Charlotte Wood is an Australian novelist. The Australian newspaper described Wood as "one of our [Australia's] most original and provocative writers".

Delia Falconer(born c. 1966) is an Australian novelist best known for her novel The Service of Clouds. Her works have been nominated for several literary awards.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor</span> Kenyan writer (born 1968)

Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor is a Kenyan writer who is the author of novels, short stories and essays. She won the 2003 Caine Prize for African Writing for her story "Weight of Whispers".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chloe Hooper</span> Australian author (born 1973)

Chloe Melisande Hooper is an Australian author.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tara June Winch</span> Australian writer

Tara June Winch is an Australian writer. She is the 2020 winner of the Miles Franklin Award for her book The Yield.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bernardine Evaristo</span> British author and academic (born 1959)

Bernardine Anne Mobolaji Evaristo is a British author and academic. Her novel Girl, Woman, Other jointly won the Booker Prize in 2019 alongside Margaret Atwood's The Testaments, making her the first Black woman to win the Booker. Evaristo is Professor of Creative Writing at Brunel University London and President of the Royal Society of Literature, the second woman and the first black person to hold the role since it was founded in 1820.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pamela Freeman</span> Australian writer

Pamela Freeman is an Australian author of books for both adults and children. Most of her work is fantasy but she has also written mystery stories, science fiction, family dramas and non-fiction. Her first adult series, the Castings Trilogy is published globally by Orbit Books. She is best known in Australia for the junior novel Victor’s Quest and an associated series, the Floramonde books, and for The Black Dress: Mary MacKillop’s Early Years, which won the NSW Premier's History Prize in 2006.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sarah Holland-Batt</span> Australian poet and academic

Sarah Holland-Batt is a contemporary Australian poet, critic, and academic.

Australia-Asia Literary Award (AALA) was an initiative of the Government of Western Australia Department of Culture and the Arts. It was Australia's richest literary prize, with a purse of A$110,000. The award was established in 2007 and the first and only winner was announced in November 2008, from entries published in 2007. In 2010 it was announced the award would be discontinued, with resources merged with the Western Australian Premier's Book Awards (PBA). "The AALA will be discontinued immediately so we can free up some of those funds for an improved Premier’s Book Awards." On 15 February 2010, the PBA began accepting for entry books published in 2008 and 2009 for the 2010 PBA.

The Bragg UNSW Press Prize for Science Writing was established in 2012 to recognise excellence in Australian science writing. The annual prize of A$7,000 is awarded to the best short non-fiction piece of science fiction with the aim of a general audience. Two runners up are awarded $1,500 each.

Ellen Banda-Aaku is a Zambian author, radio drama and film producer who was born in the UK and grew up in Africa. She is the author of two novels and several books for children, and has had short stories published in anthologies and other outlets.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Only the Animals (short story collection)</span> 2014 book by Ceridwen Dovey

Only the Animals is a 2014 book by Ceridwen Dovey. It is her second book after Blood Kin (2008). It is a collection of ten short stories about the souls of ten animals caught up in human conflicts over the last century and tell their stories of life and death.

Fiona McFarlane is an Australian author, best known for her book The Night Guest and her collection of short stories The High Places. She is a recipient of the Voss Literary Prize, the UTS Glenda Adams Award for New Writing at the New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards, the Dylan Thomas Prize, and the Nita Kibble Literary Award.

Anna Krien is an Australian journalist, essayist, fiction and nonfiction writer and poet.

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

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Laura Jean McKay</span> Australian author

Laura Jean McKay is an Australian author and creative writing lecturer. In 2021 she won the Victorian Prize for Literature and the Arthur C. Clarke Award for her novel The Animals in That Country.

References

  1. 1 2 "5 Under 35 Archives" . Retrieved 26 November 2020.
  2. 1 2 "Dovey wins 2020 Bragg Prize for Science Writing". Books+Publishing. 26 November 2020. Retrieved 26 November 2020.
  3. ↑ Potier, Beth (5 June 2003). "Ceridwen Dovey '03 films her native South Africa". Harvard Gazette. Retrieved 19 May 2022.
  4. ↑ "Ceridwen Dovey". The New Yorker. Retrieved 19 May 2022.
  5. ↑ "Ceridwen Dovey". The Monthly. 14 July 2014. Retrieved 19 May 2022.
  6. ↑ "Blood Kin by Ceridwen Dovey - Reading Guide: 9781101202739 - PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books". PenguinRandomhouse.com. Retrieved 19 May 2022.
  7. ↑ Romei, Stephen. "Burden of the beasts". The Australian . Retrieved 21 December 2014.
  8. ↑ "Only the Animals". Reading Australia. Retrieved 19 May 2022.
  9. ↑ "Clarke, Dovey among Sidney Myer Creative Fellowship recipients | Books+Publishing". 12 September 2019. Retrieved 19 May 2022.
  10. ↑ Walsh, S. Kirk (31 August 2018). "'In the Garden of the Fugitives': A Literary Tale of Love and Obsession (Published 2018)". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 26 November 2020.
  11. ↑ "Review: On J.M. Coetzee by Ceridwen Dovey". ArtsHub Australia. 23 October 2018. Retrieved 19 May 2022.
  12. ↑ "Life After Truth by Ceridwen Dovey review – lifestyles of the remarkably privileged". The Guardian. 12 November 2020. Retrieved 26 November 2020.
  13. ↑ "Professor Lindiwe Dovey | Staff | SOAS University of London". www.soas.ac.uk. Retrieved 8 July 2023.
  14. ↑ Nicole Rudick, "Blood Kin" (review), Bookforum, February 2008. Retrieved 21 February 2008
  15. ↑ "New Fiction, New Worlds", Publishers Weekly. Retrieved 21 February 2008
  16. ↑ Catherine Taylor, "Languour management" (review of Blood Kin), The Guardian, 21 July 2007. Retrieved 21 February 2008
  17. ↑ Review of Blood Kin, Litnet. Retrieved 21 February 2008
  18. ↑ Only the Animals by Ceridwen Dovey, Book Review, Booklover Book Reviews - 6 February 2015
  19. ↑ Rebecca Starford, "The Garden of the Fugitives review: Ceridwen Dovey's striking, intelligent novel" Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 8 April 2018
  20. ↑ "Past Award Recipients". Sidney Myer Fund & The Myer Foundation. Retrieved 2 November 2022.
  21. ↑ "Ceridwen Dovey". AustLit: Discover Australian Stories. The University of Queensland. Retrieved 31 July 2023.
  22. ↑ "Moondust could cloud our lunar ambitions". Wired. 20 May 2019. Retrieved 2 November 2022.
  23. ↑ "2020 Australian Museum Eureka Prize winners". The Australian Museum. Archived from the original on 24 November 2020. Retrieved 9 December 2020.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.