Although Janette Turner Hospital’s short stories have been widely praised, she is probably best known for her novels. Hospital has also written a crime thriller, A Very Proper Death (1990), under the pseudonym Alex Juniper.

Janette Turner Hospital’s short story “Waiting” won a first short-story award, presented by Atlantic Monthly; her first novel, The Ivory Swing, won Canada’s Seal First Novel Award, presented by Seal Books. She has also received a gold medal from the Canadian National Magazine Awards; a Torgi Award, presented by the Canadian Association for the Blind; and an Australian National Book Council Award. Her collection of short stories Dislocations won the Fellowship of Australian Writers Award, and her novel Charades was a finalist for the Booker McConnell Prize. Many of her short stories have appeared in England’s Annual Best Short Stories, and her novel Oyster was a finalist for awards in both Australia and Canada. Griffith University awarded her an honorary doctorate in 1995 for her contributions to Australian literature.