Nick Earls
Nicholas Francis Ward Earls (born 8 October 1963) is a novelist from Brisbane, Australia, who writes humorous popular fiction about everyday life. The majority of his novels are set in his home town of Brisbane, which has given him a high local profile. He fronted a major Brisbane tourism campaign.[1]
Nick Earls | |
|---|---|
| Born | Nicholas Francis Ward Earls 8 October 1963 Newtownards, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom |
| Occupation | Novelist |
| Nationality | Australian |
| Website | |
| nickearls | |
Biography
Earls was born on 8 October 1963 in Newtownards, Northern Ireland.[2] He emigrated to Australia with his parents and sister at the age of nine. Living in Brisbane, he was educated at the Anglican Church Grammar School there.[3] He completed a medical degree at the University of Queensland and worked as a GP before turning to writing.[4]
Career
Earls has been compared to Nick Hornby.[5] Zigzag Street, his second novel, won the Betty Trask Award in 1998[6] (sharing with Kiran Desai's Hullaballoo in the Guava Orchard). His young-adult novel, 48 Shades of Brown, won the Children's Book Council of Australia Book of the Year Award for older readers in 2000.[7] Several of his novels (After January and 48 Shades of Brown) have been adapted for theatre, and 48 Shades of Brown was adapted into a film entitled 48 Shades, released in August 2006. Earls has also written other novels, including Bachelor Kisses (which borrows its title from a song by Brisbane band The Go-Betweens), Perfect Skin, World of Chickens, The Thompson Gunner, and young adult novels After January, and Making Laws for Clouds.[8]
Earls has also contributed to the four best-selling anthologies in the Girls' Night In series as well as Kids' Night In and Kids' Night In 2 as editor. His most recent novels are Welcome to Normal, a collection of original short stories, The True Story of Butterfish, about a former rock star re-adjusting to mundane life in the Brisbane suburbs, and Monica Bloom, based on his own adolescent experience of an ill-fated crush.[4]
Several of his books have been adapted for the stage by Brisbane's La Boite Theatre Company.
He is referenced in the film All My Friends Are Leaving Brisbane.
Bibliography
| Year | Work | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | Wisdom Tree | novella series | |
| 2014 | Analogue Men | novel | |
| 2012 | Welcome to Normal | short stories | |
| 2011 | The Fix | novel | |
| 2009 | The True Story of Butterfish | novel | |
| 2007 | Joel and Cat Set the Story Straight | young adult novel, co-written with Rebecca Sparrow | |
| A revealed life : Australian writers and their journeys in memoir | collection of memoirs from Australian writers, including Nick Earls, edited by Julianne Schultz | ||
| 2006 | Monica Bloom | young adult novel | |
| Making waves : 10 years of the Byron Bay Writers Festival | collection of short works by Australian authors, including Nick Earls, edited by Marele Day, Susan Bradley Smith and Fay Knight | ||
| 2004 | The Thompson Gunner | novel | |
| 2003 | Kid's Night In | edited by Jessica Adams, Juliet Partridge and Nick Earls | |
| 2002 | Making Laws for Clouds | young adult novel | |
| 2001 | World of Chickens | novel | |
| 2000 | Penguin Australian Summer Stories 3 | collection of short stories by Australian authors including Nick Earls | |
| Perfect Skin | novel | ||
| 1999 | 48 Shades of Brown | young adult novel | |
| 1998 | Bachelor Kisses | novel. Set in a house in Bayliss Street, Toowong, Brisbane, Australia.[9] | |
| There Must Be Lions: Stories About Mental Illness | with Sonya Hartnett and Heide Seaman, features Nick Earl's short story There Must Be Lions | ||
| The Gift of Story | edited by Marion Halligan and Rosanne Fitzgibbon, features Nick Earls' short story Plaza | ||
| 1996 | Zigzag Street | novel. Set in a house addressed as 34 Zigzag Street, Red Hill, Brisbane, Australia.[10] | |
| After January | young adult novel | ||
| Smashed: Australian drinking stories | collection, edited by Matthew Condon and Richard Lawson, includes Nick Earls' short story Green | ||
| Original Sin | edited by Robyn Sheahan, includes Nick Earls' short story Box-shaped Heart | ||
| Sporting Declaration | edited by Manfred Jurgensen, includes Nick Earls' short story PE | ||
| Blur: Stories by young Australian writers | edited by James Bradley, includes Nick Earls' short story Head games | ||
| 1995 | Paradise To Paranoia: New Queensland Writing | edited by Nigel Krauth and Robyn Sheehan, includes Nick Earls' short story Meanwhile, thirty-eight above Charlotte | |
| Picador New Writing 3 | edited by Drusilla Modjeska and Beth Yahp, includes Nick Earls' short story The Goatflap brothers and the house of names | ||
| Nightmares In Paradise | compiled by Robyn Sheahan, includes Nick Earls' short story Juliet | ||
Series: Word Hunters
- Earls, Nick; Whidborne, Terry (2012). The curious dictionary. St Lucia, Qld: University of Queensland Press.
Short fiction
| Title | Year | First published | Reprinted/collected |
|---|---|---|---|
| Moving | 1993 | Earls, Nick (1993). "Moving". Outrider : a journal of multicultural literature in Australia. 10: 49–58. Issue titled Queensland, words and all. | Earls, Nick (1999). Headgames. Ringwood, Vic: Penguin. pp. 233–246. |
| Dog 1, Dog 2 | 1993 | Earls, Nick (1993). "Dog 1, Dog 2". Outrider : a journal of multicultural literature in Australia. 10: 59–64. Issue titled Queensland, words and all. |
|
Collections
- Earls, Nick (1992). Passion. St Lucia, Qld: University of Queensland Press.
- — (1999). Headgames. Ringwood, Vic: Penguin.
- — (2012). Welcome to Normal. North Sydney, NSW: Vintage.
Poetry
- Earls, Nick (1985). Near and far away. Clayfield, Qld: Boolarong.
Critical studies and reviews
- Poacher, Jeffrey (September 2011). "Comic spin". Australian Book Review (334): 50. Review of The fix.
- Introduction to a reissue of The Delinquents by Criena Rohan, 2014 Retrieved 17 October 2015
References
- Media Release: Nick Earls tells Brisbane's story through new campaign Archived 24 July 2008 at the Wayback Machine, Brisbane Marketing, 20 March 2002.
- Author: Nick Earls, Penguin Group
- Mason, James (2011). Churchie: The Centenary Register. Brisbane, Australia: The Anglican Church Grammar School. ISBN 978-0-646-55807-3.
- Silkstone, Dan: Mature face of Aussie lad lit, The Age, 15 July 2006.
- Wyndham, Susan: The Hot Seat: Nick Earls, The Sydney Morning Herald, 2 September 2006.
- "The Betty Trask Prizes and Awards:Past Winners". The Society of Authors. Archived from the original on 24 June 2013.
- "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 5 January 2010. Retrieved 9 October 2015.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
- Sunny Garden - The Official Nick Earls Website. Sunny Garden - The Official Nick Earls Website. 23 April 2007.
- Earls, Nick (1998). Bachelor Kisses. Ringwood, VIC: Viking. p. 20. ISBN 0670877859.
- Earls, Nick (1996). Zigzag Street. Moorebank, NSW: Anchor. p. 104. ISBN 0868246786.
External links
- Nick Earls - the official Nick Earls web site
- The University of Queensland - 2006 Alumnus of the Year
- Stories from the Q150 Steam Train - Nick Earls by Nick Earls, a 3 min 56 sec video, published by State Library of Queensland as part of Storylines:Q150 digital stories
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