R. W. R. McDonald

Last updated

R.W.R McDonald is a New Zealand author, living in Melbourne, Australia best known for his crime novels The Nancys. and Nancy Business [1] [2] [3] [4]

Contents

Personal life

McDonald was born in Balclutha, New Zealand and grew up on a sheep and venison farm in South Otago. [2] [5]

Although he now lives in Melbourne, he maintains strong ties to the region, and set his first novel in Otago. The fictional town of Riverstone in both The Nancys and Nancy Businesswas modelled "somewhat on Balclutha", he said.

McDonald identifies as queer and co-parents two daughters. [2] [5]

Writing career

R.W.R McDonald wrote the first draft of The Nancys while at Faber Academy, Melbourne under the tutelage of award winning authors Toni Jordan and Paddy O'Reilly. [5] [6] [7]

McDonald credits his tutors and mentors for "talking him off the ledge" halfway through writing The Nancys and "sticking with it" when he was going to pull out of the course and writing due to outside pressures. [6] [7]

In 2017, The Nancys was highly commended in Victorian Premier's Unpublished Manuscript Award, this lead him to signing with literary agent, Grace Heifetz. [8] [9] [10]

In 2019, his debut novel, The Nancys, was published in Australia and New Zealand by Allen and Unwin. [11] [12] [13] [14]

McDonald's second novel in The Nancys series, Nancy Business, was published in June 2021. [15]

McDonald was a contributor to the 2022 crime fiction anthology, Dark Deeds Down Under: A Crime & Thriller Anthology with Nancys Undercover, a short story set one year after The Nancys [16]

R.W.R McDonald was a judge in the 2022 VPLA Unpublished Awards. [17]

In September 2023, McDonald’s first picture book, Happy Millionth Birthday, illustrated by Alexandra Colombo, published by Larrikin House [18]

The Nancys

The novel centres around an eleven year old school girl, Tippy Chan and her babysitting Uncle Pike and his boyfriend Devon, who together form a secret amateur detective club "The Nancys" to try and solve Tippy's teacher's murder in her small town over one summer. [3] [19] [20] [1] [21]

Nancy Business

The sequel to The Nancys. McDonald's second book takes place four months after The Nancys finished. The story begins on the one-year anniversary of Weifang (Joe) Chan's death. The amateur detective trio, made up of Tippy Chan, her Uncle Pike and his boyfriend, Devon, reform after a large explosion rocks Tippy's small hometown of Riverstone, South Otago. The Nancys believe the police have charged the wrong person with the bombing. [22] [23] [24]

Awards and recognition

• Ngaio Marsh Award, 2020, Best First Novel, Winner for The Nancys

• Victorian Premier's Unpublished Manuscript Award, 2017 Highly commended for The Nancys [8] [9]

• Ngaio Marsh Award, 2020, Best Crime Novel, Finalist for The Nancys

• Ned Kelly Awards, 2020, Best First Novel, Shortlisted for The Nancys

• In June 2021, the Screen options for The Nancys were bought by Hoodlum Entertainment, via Grace Heifetz of Left Bank Literacy Agency. [25]

• Ngaio Marsh Award, 2022, Best Crime Novel, Finalist for Nancy Business [26]

Bibliography

• The Nancys (2019) ISBN   9781760527334 [3] [20]

• Nancy Business (2021) ISBN   9781760878870 [22] [23]

• Dark Deeds Down Under: A Crime & Thriller Anthology (2022), Contributor “Nancys Undercover” ISBN   9780645316780 [16]

• Happy Millionth Birthday (2023) ISBN   9781922804631 [27]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Greg McGee</span> New Zealand writer and playwright

Gregory William McGee is a New Zealand writer and playwright, who also writes crime fiction under the pseudonym Alix Bosco.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Barbara Ewing</span> British actress, playwright and novelist

Barbara Ewing is a New Zealand actress, playwright and novelist based in the UK. In the 1980s Ewing played the character Agnes Fairchild in British comedy series Brass. Ewing's novel The Petticoat Men was shortlisted for the Ngaio Marsh Award in 2015.

Andrew McGahan was an Australian novelist. His first novel Praise is considered to be part of the Australian literary genre of grunge lit. His novel The White Earth won the 2005 Miles Franklin Award.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kerry Greenwood</span> Australian author and lawyer (born 1954)

Kerry Isabelle Greenwood is an Australian author and lawyer. She has written many plays and books, most notably a string of historical detective novels centred on the character of Phryne Fisher, which was adapted as the popular television series Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries. She writes mysteries, science-fiction, historical fiction, children's stories, and plays. Greenwood earned the Australian women's crime fiction Davitt Award in 2002 for her young adult novel The Three-Pronged Dagger.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paul Cleave</span> New Zealand writer

Paul Cleave is a crime fiction author from New Zealand.

Sophie Cunningham is an Australian writer and editor based in Melbourne. She is the current Chair of the Board of the Australian Society of Authors, the national peak body representing Australian authors.

<i>When in Rome</i> (novel) 1970 detective novel by Ngaio Marsh

When in Rome is a detective novel by Ngaio Marsh; it is the twenty-sixth novel to feature Roderick Alleyn, and was first published in 1970.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vanda Symon</span> New Zealand writer

Vanda Symon is a crime writer and radio host from Dunedin, New Zealand, and the Chair of the Otago Southland Branch of the New Zealand Society of Authors. Three of her novels have been shortlisted for New Zealand's annual Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Crime Novel.

Michael Te Arawa Bennett is a New Zealand writer, scenarist and director for film and television.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ngaio Marsh Awards</span> Literary award for crime fictions in New Zealand

The Ngaio Marsh Awards, popularly called the Ngaios, are literary awards presented annually in New Zealand to recognise excellence in crime fiction, mystery, and thriller writing. The Awards were established by journalist and legal editor Craig Sisterson in 2010, and are named after Dame Ngaio Marsh, one of the four Queens of Crime of the Golden Age of Detective Fiction. The Award is presented at the WORD Christchurch Writers & Readers Festival in Christchurch, the hometown of Dame Ngaio.

Angela Savage is an Australian author.

Ben Sanders is a bestselling crime writer from Auckland, New Zealand. His work has received critical acclaim, been shortlisted for the Ngaio Marsh Award, and his fourth novel, American Blood, has been optioned for film adaptation by Warner Bros, with four-time Oscar nominee Bradley Cooper slated to play the lead role.

Anna Ciddor is an Australian author and illustrator.

Richard Walsh is an Australian publisher, editor, company director, media consultant, lecturer, broadcaster and journalist. For many years he ran the publishing and bookselling firm Angus & Robertson and later he headed the media company Australian Consolidated Press. In those roles he was "one of the most dominant figures in Australian publishing from the early seventies".

Peggy Frew is an Australian novelist.

Tina Shaw is a New Zealand author.

Liam McIlvanney is a Scottish-born crime fiction writer and academic at the University of Otago in Otago, New Zealand, and the inaugural holder of the Stuart Chair in Scottish studies at the university. He is the son of William McIlvanney. Notable students include author Majella Cullinane.

WORD Christchurch is an organisation based in Christchurch, New Zealand which presents a variety of events around books, stories and ideas, most notably the annual WORD Christchurch Festival, also known as WORD Festival, established in 1997, then known as Books and Beyond. Until 2014, the festival was run as the Press Christchurch Writers Festival.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Becky Manawatu</span> New Zealand writer

Becky Manawatu is a New Zealand writer. In 2020, she won two Ockham New Zealand Book Awards for her first novel, Auē and Best Crime Novel at the 2020 Ngaio Marsh Awards.

Angelique Kasmara is an Indonesian New Zealand fiction writer, editor and translator. Her first novel, Isobar Precinct (2021), is one of the few literary novels published by an Asian New Zealand woman writer, and received critical praise.

References

  1. 1 2 "R.W.R. McDonald". The Wheeler Centre. Retrieved 11 May 2020.
  2. 1 2 3 "Sense of Place: RWR McDonald, South Otago". ABC Radio National. 13 December 2019. Retrieved 11 May 2020.
  3. 1 2 3 McDonald, R. W. R. (2019). The Nancys. Crows Nest, NSW: Allen & Unwin. ISBN   978-1-76052-733-4. OCLC   1089415674.
  4. ↑ "Books That Changed Me: RWR McDonald". The Sydney Morning Herald. 1 June 2019. Retrieved 11 May 2020.
  5. 1 2 3 "R.W.R. McDonald answers our Ten Terrifying Questions!". The Booktopian. 4 June 2019. Retrieved 11 May 2020.
  6. 1 2 "Melbourne Writers Festival - Rob McDonald and Toni Jordan: Writing Your Way Up". Melbourne Writers Festival. 5 June 2018. Retrieved 11 May 2020.
  7. 1 2 Onions, The (23 January 2019). "How Faber Writing Academy helped Rob McDonald write The Nancys". Things Made From Letters: the Allen & Unwin blog. Retrieved 11 May 2020.
  8. 1 2 "The Award for an Unpublished Manuscript". The Wheeler Centre. Retrieved 11 May 2020.
  9. 1 2 Mem: 9024872. "Shortlist announced for 2017 Vic Prem's Unpublished Manuscript award | Books+Publishing" . Retrieved 11 May 2020.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  10. ↑ Byron, Jacquie (18 October 2019). "Antipodean noir: Is crime Melbourne's biggest export?". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 11 May 2020.
  11. ↑ "Unlikely heroes: R W R McDonald on 'The Nancys' | Books+Publishing".
  12. ↑ "Allen & Unwin - Australia".
  13. ↑ "The Nancys (R W R McDonald, A&U) | Books+Publishing".
  14. ↑ "Books That Changed Me: RWR McDonald". The Sydney Morning Herald. 1 June 2019.
  15. ↑ Goldsworthy, Kerryn (16 July 2021). "Fiction reviews: The Tulip Tree and three other titles". The Sydney Morning Herald.
  16. 1 2 "Dark Deeds Down Under".
  17. ↑ "Victorian Premier's Literary Awards 2022". The Wheeler Centre. Archived from the original on 23 February 2022. Retrieved 28 December 2023.
  18. ↑ McDonald, R. W. R. (September 2023). Happy Millionth Birthday. Larrikin House. ISBN   9781922804631.
  19. ↑ Allen, Supplied; Unwin (5 July 2019). "Debut writers series: The Nancys by R. W. R. McDonald". ABC Radio National. Retrieved 11 May 2020.
  20. 1 2 "The Nancys - R.W.R. McDonald - 9781760527334 - Allen & Unwin - Australia". www.allenandunwin.com. Retrieved 11 May 2020.
  21. ↑ Mem: 9254632. "Unlikely heroes: R W R McDonald on 'The Nancys' | Books+Publishing" . Retrieved 11 May 2020.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  22. 1 2 Fiona, Hardy (June 2019). "The Nancys (R W R McDonald, A&U)". Books+Publishing. Retrieved 3 June 2022.
  23. 1 2 Nancy business. Allen & Unwin. 2021. ISBN   9781760878870. OCLC   1240210429.
  24. ↑ "Rob McDonald's second novel, the Nancy Business". Radio New Zealand . 27 June 2021.
  25. ↑ "'The Nancys' optioned for screen | Books+Publishing".
  26. ↑ "Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Crime Novel".
  27. ↑ McDonald, R. W. R. (2023). Happy Millionth Birthday. Larrikin House. ISBN   9781922804631.
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.