Australian · b. 1942
Helen Garner is an Australian writer born in Geelong, Victoria, in 1942. She first became known for her 1977 novel Monkey Grip, a story of love and heroin use in Melbourne share houses. She went on to write fiction including The Children's Bach and Cosmo Cosmolino, and screenplays, among them the film The Last Days of Chez Nous. From the 1990s she turned mainly to long-form nonfiction. The First Stone examined a sexual harassment case at a Melbourne university college and caused a public argument. Joe Cinque's Consolation covered a killing in Canberra and the trial that followed. This House of Grief followed the Robert Farquharson trials. Her diaries and essays have also been published. She writes in plain, close-up scenes and puts her own doubts on the page. Her awards include the Walkley Book Award, the Ned Kelly Award and the Windham-Campbell Prize. She is regarded as one of Australia's leading writers.