Thomas Keneally

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Other literary forms

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In addition to his long fiction, Thomas Keneally (kuh-NEE-lee) has written four plays: Halloran’s Little Boat (pr. 1966), Childermass (pr. 1968), An Awful Rose (pr. 1972), and Bullie’s House (pr. 1980). He has also written two television plays: Essington, produced in the United Kingdom in 1974, and The World’s Wrong End (1981). In addition, he has published several works of nonfiction, including Now and in Time to Be: Ireland and the Irish (1991), American Scoundrel: The Life of the Notorious Civil War General Dan Sickles (2002), and A Commonwealth of Thieves: The Improbable Birth of Australia (2006), as well as a memoir, Homebush Boy (1995).

Achievements

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Thomas Keneally, one of the most successful modern Australian writers, has received international acclaim for his fiction. He has been short-listed for the Booker Prize on four occasions: for The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith (1972), Gossip from the Forest (1975), and Confederates (1979), before winning the prize with Schindler’s Ark (1982). He has received the Miles Franklin Award (1967, 1968), the Captain Cook Bicentenary Prize (1970), and the Royal Society of Literature Prize (1982). The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith won for him the Heinemann Award for literature (1973), and Schindler’s Ark won the Los Angeles Times Fiction Prize (1983). Keneally’s other honors include the presidency of the National Book Council of Australia and membership in the Australia-China Council.

Discussion Topics

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Although Thomas Keneally lives and works in Australia, critics have argued that he deserves to be read by an international audience. Defend this argument.

Keneally’s work has often been singled out for the author’s attention to historical detail. Explore the validity of this argument.

Many of Keneally’s principal characters seem at odds with systems of authority. Find examples.

How might the author’s Catholic upbringing inform his work?

The issue of social injustice plays a prominent role in much of Keneally’s fiction. Trace this theme in more than one work by the author.

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