Merlinda Bobis is an award-winning writer with 4 novels, 6 poetry books, a collection of short stories and 9 dramatic works. She performed her one-woman plays internationally. Her awards include: the 2016 Christina Stead Prize for Fiction for her novel, Locust Girl. A Lovesong; three Philippine National Book Awards also for Locust Girl and an earlier novel, Fish-Hair Woman, and for her collection of short stories, White Turtle, which also won the Steele Rudd Award for the Best Published Collection of Australian Short Stories. She received the Prix Italia, the Australian Writers' Guild Award and the Ian Reed Prize for her play, Rita’s Lullaby. Her poetry book, Summer Was a Fast Train Without Terminals, was shortlisted for The Age Poetry Book of the Year, and her first novel, Banana Heart Summer, for the Australian Literature Society Gold Medal. Her latest poetry book, Accidents of Composition, was Highly Commended for the 2018 ACT Book of the Year. Some of the poems in this book also received the Philippines’ Carlos Palanca Memorial Award for Literature (Poetry in English, Second Place). She taught Creative Writing for 21 years at University of Wollongong and is currently Honorary Senior Lecturer at The Australian National University.
merlindabobis.com.au
