Tara June Winch (born 2 December 1983) is an Australian writer. She is the 2020 winner of the Miles Franklin Award for her book The Yield.

Tara June Winch
Winch in 2008
Winch in 2008
Born (1983-12-02) December 2, 1983 (age 40)
Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia
OccupationWriter
Notable awardsMiles Franklin Award (2020)
Children1
Website
www.tarajunewinch.com

Biography edit

Tara June Winch was born in Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia on 2 December 1983.[1][2] Her father is from the Wiradjuri nation in western New South Wales, and she grew up in the coastal area of Woonona within the Wollongong region. She often explores the two geographical places in her fiction.[3] She is based in Australia and France.[4]

Her first novel, Swallow the Air (2006), won several Australian literary awards. The judges for The Sydney Morning Herald Best Young Novelists award wrote that the book "is distinguished by its natural grace and vivid language" and that "As with many first books it deals with issues of family, growing up and stepping into the world. But it strives to connect these experiences to broader social issues, though never in a didactic fashion".[5]

In 2008 the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative supported her mentorship under Nobel Prize-winning author Wole Soyinka.[6]

The critical reception for her second book, After the Carnage (2016), was positive. A review in The Australian stated that "Winch can pack a punch and break your heart within a few pages" and that "The personal-is-political worldview flexes Winch's considerable literary muscle".[7]

Her 2019 novel The Yield won seven national Australian literary awards in 2020, including the Prime Minister's Literary Award[8] for fiction and the Miles Franklin Literary Award.[9]

Awards and nominations edit

Bibliography edit

Books edit

  • Winch, Tara June (2006). Swallow the Air. University of Queensland Press.
  • — (2016). After the Carnage. University of Queensland Press.
  • — (2019). The Yield. Hamish Hamilton, Penguin Books.

Anthologies edit

  • Winch, Tara June (2005). "Cloud Busting". In Frank Moorhouse (ed.). Best Australian Stories. Black Inc.
  • — (2006). "from Swallow the Air". MANOA: A Pacific Journal of International Writing. 18. University of Hawai'i.
  • — (2008). "Cloud Busting". In Anita Heiss; Peter Minter (eds.). Macquarie PEN Anthology of Aboriginal Literature. Allen & Unwin.
  • — (2012). "It's too Difficult to Explain". McSweeney's 41. McSweeney's Publishing.
  • — (2015). "Cloud Busting". Something Special, Something Rare: Outstanding Short Stories by Australian Women. Black Inc.

Essays and reporting edit

  • Winch, Tara June (21–23 December 2007). "Summers Gone". Good Weekend Magazine. The Sydney Morning Herald. pp. 29–30, 33, 35.
  • — (2007). "Mending a Broken Link". The Next Big Thing. Griffith Review.
  • — (September 2013). "Skatestan". Vice.
  • — (April 2013). "Long Way Home". Vogue Australia. pp. 46ff.
  • — (2014). "Bringing up bilingual bébé". Perspectives. Meanjin. 73 (1): 12–14.
  • — (2015). "Author". Motherhood and Creativity. Affirm Press: 25ff.
  • — (2018). "First, Second, Third, Fourth". Growing Up Aboriginal In Australia. Australia: Black Inc. pp. 282ff. ISBN 9781863959810.

Film edit

  • Carriberrie (screenwriter) Winch, Tara June (2018)[21]

References edit

  1. ^ Biography, AustLit
  2. ^ Winch, Tara June. "About". Retrieved 28 March 2023.
  3. ^ Melissa Lucashenko (2013). "Review: Swallow the Air". readingaustralia.com.
  4. ^ "Tara June Winch, Writer". 19 May 2016.
  5. ^ Wyndham, Susan (2007) "A fairytale beginning", The Sydney Morning Herald, Arts and Entertainment section, 2–3 June 2007, p. 9
  6. ^ Winch, Tara June (2019). "[Front matter: author bio]". The Yield. Hamish Hamilton. ISBN 978-0-14378-575-0.
  7. ^ Varrenti, Elly (2016) "Tara June Winch's After the Carnage: lives reshaped by memories", The Australian, Review section, 3 September 2016
  8. ^ "Prime Minister's Literary awards: Tara June Winch wins in record-breaking year for Indigenous work" by Steph Harmon, The Guardian, 10 December 2020
  9. ^ "Tara June Winch wins 2020 Miles Franklin award for her book The Yield: 'It broke my heart to write it' " by Stephanie Convery, The Guardian, 16 July 2020
  10. ^ State Library of Queensland Young Writers Award, Runner up and Maureen Donahoe Encouragement award Archived 11 October 2008 at the Wayback Machine. Slq.qld.gov.au. Retrieved on 2011-11-06.
  11. ^ a b c Moran, Jennifer (2008) "Indigenous writer makes shortlist for coveted prize", The Canberra Times, 2008-04-11, p. 5
  12. ^ "NSW Premier's Award 2017 shortlist celebrates short storytelling", Morris, Linda; The Sydney Morning Herald 2017-04-26.
  13. ^ "2020 Victorian Premier's Literary Awards shortlists announced". Books+Publishing. 2 December 2019. Retrieved 2 December 2019.
  14. ^ "Stella Prize 2020 shortlist announced". Books+Publishing. 6 March 2020. Retrieved 9 March 2020.
  15. ^ Evans, Kate Evans (26 April 2020). "Novel celebrating Wiradjuri language wins Book of the Year at major literary awards". ABC News. Australia. Retrieved 26 April 2020.
  16. ^ "Miles Franklin won by Wiradjuri author Tara June Winch for novel of family, history and language". ABC News. Australia. 16 July 2020. Retrieved 16 July 2020.
  17. ^ "Queensland Literary Awards 2020 shortlists announced". Books+Publishing. 5 August 2020. Retrieved 6 August 2020.
  18. ^ "Winner 2020". The Voss Literary Prize. 3 December 2020. Retrieved 14 December 2020.
  19. ^ "Prime Minister's Literary Awards 2020 winners announced". Books+Publishing. 10 December 2020. Retrieved 10 December 2020.
  20. ^ "2022 Adelaide Festival Awards for Literature shortlists announced". Books+Publishing. 19 January 2022. Retrieved 26 January 2022.
  21. ^ "Carriberrie".

External links edit