Thomas Keneally

Thomas Michael Keneally
Born 7 October 1935 (1935-10-07) (age 74)
Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Occupation Novelist
Nationality Australia

Thomas Michael Keneally AO (born 7 October 1935) is an Australian novelist, playwright and author of non-fiction.

Contents

Biography

Born in Homebush, New South Wales, Keneally was educated at St Patrick's College, Strathfield, where a writing prize was named after him. He entered St Patrick's Seminary, Manly to train as a Catholic priest but left before his ordination. He worked as a Sydney schoolteacher before his success as a novelist, and he was a lecturer at the University of New England (1968-70). He has also written screenplays, memoirs and non-fiction books.

Keneally was known as "Mick" until 1964 but began using the name Thomas when he started publishing, after advice from his publisher to use what was really his first name.[1] He is most famous for his Schindler's Ark (1982) (later republished as Schindler's List), which won the Booker Prize and is the basis of the film Schindler's List. Many of his novels are reworkings of historical material, although modern in their psychology and style.

Keneally has also acted in a handful of films. He had a small role in The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith (based on his novel) and played Father Marshall in the Fred Schepisi movie, The Devil's Playground (1976) (not to be confused with a similarly-titled documentary by Lucy Walker about the Amish rite of passage called rumspringa).

In 1983 he was made an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO). He is an Australian Living Treasure.

He is a strong advocate of the Australian republic, meaning the severing of all ties with the British monarchy, and published a book on the subject Our Republic in 1993. Several of his Republican essays appear on the web site of the Australian Republican Movement.

Keneally is a keen supporter of the Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles rugby league football club in the NRL.

Awards

Man Booker Prize The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith, shortlisted 1972
Gossip from the Forest, shortlisted 1975
Confederates, shortlisted 1979
Schindler's Ark, winner 1982
Miles Franklin Award Bring Larks and Heroes, winner 1967
Three Cheers for the Paraclete, winner 1968
An Angel in Australia, shortlisted 2003
The Widow and Her Hero, longlisted 2008
Prime Minister's Literary Awards The Widow and Her Hero, shortlisted 2008
New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards Special Award, winner 2008

Schindler's Ark

Main article: Schindler's Ark

Keneally wrote the Booker Prize winning novel in 1982, inspired by the efforts of Poldek Pfefferberg, a Holocaust survivor. In 1980 Pfefferberg met Keneally in his shop, and learning that he was a novelist, showed him his extensive files on Schindler. Keneally was interested, and Pfefferberg became an advisor for the book, accompanying Keneally to Poland where they visited Kraków and the sites associated with the Schindler story. Keneally dedicated Schindler's Ark to Pfefferberg: "who by zeal and persistence caused this book to be written." He said in an interview in 2007 that what attracted him to Oskar Schindler was that "it was the fact that you couldn't say where opportunism ended and altruism began. And I like the subversive fact that the spirit breatheth where it will. That is, that good will emerged from the most unlikely places".[1] The book was later made into a film titled Schindler's List (1993) by Steven Spielberg, earning the director his first Best Director Oscar. His meeting with Pfefferberg and their research tours are detailed in Searching for Schindler: A Memoir (2007).

Bibliography

Novels

Non-Fiction

Drama

Notes

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 "Tom Keneally, interviewed by Peter Thompson", Talking Heads, ABC-TV, 30 July 2007. Accessed: 2007-10-11

References

External links

Man Booker Prize for Fiction
1969–1980

P. H. Newby (1969) · Bernice Rubens (1970) · V. S. Naipaul (1971) · John Berger (1972) · James Gordon Farrell (1973) · Nadine Gordimer / Stanley Middleton (1974) · Ruth Prawer Jhabvala (1975) · David Storey (1976) · Paul Scott (1977) · Iris Murdoch (1978) · Penelope Fitzgerald (1979) · William Golding (1980)
1981–2000

Salman Rushdie (1981) · Thomas Keneally (1982) · J. M. Coetzee (1983) · Anita Brookner (1984) · Keri Hulme (1985) · Kingsley Amis (1986) · Penelope Lively (1987) · Peter Carey (1988) · Kazuo Ishiguro (1989) · A. S. Byatt (1990) · Ben Okri (1991) · Michael Ondaatje / Barry Unsworth (1992) · Roddy Doyle (1993) · James Kelman (1994) · Pat Barker (1995) · Graham Swift (1996) · Arundhati Roy (1997) · Ian McEwan (1998) · J. M. Coetzee (1999) · Margaret Atwood (2000)
2001–present

Peter Carey (2001) · Yann Martel (2002) · DBC Pierre (2003) · Alan Hollinghurst (2004) · John Banville (2005) · Kiran Desai (2006) · Anne Enright (2007) · Aravind Adiga (2008)
Miles Franklin Literary Award
1957–1970

Patrick White (1957) · Randolph Stow (1958) · Vance Palmer (1959) · Elizabeth O'Conner (1960) · Patrick White (1961) · Thea Astley / George Turner (1962) · Sumner Locke Elliott (1963) · George Johnston (1964) · Thea Astley (1965) · Peter Mathers (1966) · Thomas Keneally (1967) · Thomas Keneally (1968) · George Johnston (1969) · Dal Stivens (1970)
1971–1980

David Ireland (1971) · Thea Astley (1972) · No award (1973) · Ronald McKie (1974) · Xavier Herbert (1975) · David Ireland (1976) · Ruth Park (1977) · Jessica Anderson (1978) · David Ireland (1979) · Jessica Anderson (1980)
1981–1990

Peter Carey (1981) · Rodney Hall (1982) · No award (1983) · Tim Winton (1984) · Christopher Koch (1985) · Elizabeth Jolley (1986) · Glenda Adams (1987) · Date change (1988) · Peter Carey (1989) · Tom Flood (1990)
1991–2000

David Malouf (1991) · Tim Winton (1992) · Alex Miller (1993) · Rodney Hall (1994) · Helen Demidenko (1995) · Christopher Koch (1996) · David Foster (1997) · Peter Carey (1998) · Murray Bail (1999) · Thea Astley / Kim Scott (2000)
2001–present

Frank Moorhouse (2001) · Tim Winton (2002) · Alex Miller (2003) · Shirley Hazzard (2004) · Andrew McGahan (2005) · Roger McDonald (2006) · Alexis Wright (2007) · Steven Carroll (2008)
Persondata
NAME Keneally, Thomas Michael
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION Australian Novelist
DATE OF BIRTH 7 October 1935
PLACE OF BIRTH Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH