Gabrielle Carey

Gabrielle Carey (born 10 January 1959) is an Australian writer noted for the teen novel, Puberty Blues, which she co-wrote with Kathy Lette. This novel was the first teenage novel published in Australia that was written by teenagers.^[1] Carey has since become a senior lecturer in the Creative Writing program at the University of Technology Sydney, studying James Joyce and Randolph Stow.^[2]

Early life

Carey was born in Sydney and was raised in an atheist, humanist household. While in Ireland in the mid-1980s she converted to the Catholic faith, becoming convinced of the importance of spirituality in everyday life. After a year in Ireland she left and for several years lived in a small village in Mexico, returning to Australia in the early 1990s.

Carey has a daughter, Brigid, and a son, Jimmy. She lives in Sydney and is a freelance writer, writing occasional articles for The Sydney Morning Herald and other newspapers. She currently works as a lecturer in writing at the University of Technology, Sydney.

Puberty Blues

Carey and Lette met as teenagers at the age of 12 while still at school and became best friends. Both left school early (Carey at 15 and Lette a year later) against the wishes of their families. Leaving home, they shared a flat together and wrote Puberty Blues, which was based on real events. They also wrote a column for the Sydney "Sun Herald", under the name "The Salami Sisters". The novel shocked many people by its graphic description of teenage behaviour.

Once the book was published Carey and Lette separated and their lives moved in different directions.^[3] In 1981 a film version of the novel Puberty Blues was made, directed by Bruce Beresford.

A film version of Carey's autobiographical book, Just Us, an account of her relationship with Parramatta Gaol prisoner, Terry Haley, also was made in 1986. It was directed by Gordon Glenn from a screenplay by Ted Roberts.

Publications

Novels

• Puberty Blues with Kathy Lette (McPhee Gribble, 1979) ISBN 0-86914-010-8
• The Borrowed Girl (Picador, 1994) ISBN 0-330-35598-8

Autobiography

• Just Us (Penguin Books, 1984) ISBN 0-14-007425-2
• In My Father's House (Pan Macmillan Publishers Australia, 1992) ISBN 0-330-27294-2
• Moving among Strangers: Randolph Stow and My Family (University of Queensland Press, 2013) ISBN 9780702249921

Personal essays

• So Many Selves (ABC Books, 2006) ISBN 978-0-7333-1982-2
• Waiting Room (Scribe Publications, 2009) ISBN 978-1-921372-62-9

Edited

• The Penguin Book of Death with Rosemary Sorensen (Penguin Books, 1997) ISBN 0-14-025938-4

References

External links

• Gabrielle Carey official website
• The Big Chill. ABC: Australian Story Transcripts (Retrieved 15 September 2007)