Peter Goldsworthy

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Peter Goldsworthy (born 1951) is one of Australia's most prominent authors, having won awards for works from a wide variety of genres including short story, poetry, the novel, and opera.

He grew up in various Australian country towns, finishing his schooling in Darwin in the Northern Territory. Since graduating in medicine from the University of Adelaide, he has divided his working time between general practice and writing.

His best-selling novels have been translated into many European and Asian languages. His first novel Maestro has recently been reissued as part of the Angus & Robertson Australian Classics series, and was voted one of the Top 40 Australian books of all time by members of the Australian Society of Authors. It is currently in development as a movie, as are the novels Honk If You are Jesus, Three Dog Night and Jesus Wants Me For A Sunbeam. The novels Wish, Honk If You Are Jesus, and Three Dog Night are also being adapted for the stage, the first of these, Honk, was premiered by the State Theatre of South Australia in its 2006 season, subsequently winning the 2006 Ruby Award for Best New Work, and the 2006 Advertiser Oscart Award for Best Play.

Among his numerous literary awards are the Commonwealth Poetry Prize, and the Australian Bicentennial Literary Prize for Poetry in 1988. His novel, Three Dog Night, was shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Award in 2004 and won the FAW Christina Stead Award.

His New Selected Poems has recently been published in Australia and the UK; his Collected Stories appeared in Australia in 2004.

His poetry has been set to music by leading Australian composers including Graeme Koehne, Richard Mills, and Matthew Hindson. He wrote the libretti for the Richard Mills operas, Summer of the Seventeenth Doll and Batavia, the latter winning Mills and Goldsworthy the 2002 Robert Helpmann Awards for Best Opera and Best New Australian Work. Its Sydney premiere at the Sydney Opera House on 19 August 2006 was conducted by the composer and attended by the librettist.

Contents

[edit] Novels

[edit] Poetry collections

  • Readings from Ecclesiastes, (1982}
  • This Goes with That: Seelcted Poems 1970-1990, (1991}
  • After the Ball, (1992}
  • If, Then: Poems and Songs, (1996)
  • New Selected Poems (2001)
  • Tattered Joys (2002)

[edit] Short story collections

  • Archipelagoes (1982)
  • Zooing (1986)
  • Bleak Rooms (1988)
  • Little Deaths (1993)
  • The List of All Answers (2004)

[edit] Collected works

  • Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam (1999)

[edit] Adaptations

  • Maestro - film based on the novel in preproduction

[edit] External links

In other languages