Quick Facts
Biography
Brian Albert Castro (born 16 January 1950) is an Australian novelist and essayist.
Biography
Castro was born in Hong Kong and has lived in Australia since 1961. Currently he is Chair of Creative Writing at the University of Adelaide and Director of the J.M. Coetzee Centre for Creative Practice. His publisher is Giramondo Publishing.
Born in Hong Kong of Portuguese, Chinese and English parentage, Brian Castro was educated at the University of Sydney, after which he worked in Australia, France and Hong Kong as a teacher and writer. His first novel Birds Of Passage (1983) won The Australian/Vogel Literary Award. Double-Wolf (1991) won The Age Fiction Prize, the Vance Palmer Prize and the Innovative Writing Prize at the Victorian Premier's Literary Awards. After China (1992) again won the Victorian Premier's Literary Award. His sixth novel, Stepper (1997), was awarded the National Book Council Prize for Fiction. Shanghai Dancing was published by Giramondo in March 2003, winning the Victorian Premier's Award, the NSW Premier's Award and was named NSW Book of the Year. The Garden Book won the 2006 Queensland Premier's Award and The Bath Fugues was short-listed for the Miles Franklin Award, the South Australian Premier's Literary Award, the Queensland Premier's Fiction Prize and the Victorian Premier's Literary Award. His latest novel is Street To Street (Giramondo, 2012.) He currently lives in the Adelaide Hills.[1]
In 2014 he won the Patrick White Award for Literature for his contribution to Australian Literature.
Awards and nominations
- 1982: Australian/Vogel Literary Award for his first novel, Birds of Passage (shared award)
- 1991: Victorian Premier's Literary Award Vance Palmer Prize for Fiction, plus the Innovative Writing Award. The Age Book of the Year. Three prizes for his third novel Double-Wolf + Miles Franklin Award (Shortlisted)
- 1992: Victorian Premier's Literary Award for After China Miles Franklin Award (Shortlisted)
- 1997: National Book Council "Banjo" Award for Stepper
- 2004: Victorian Premier's Literary Award for Fiction, and the New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards Christina Stead Fiction Prize and Book of the Year for Shanghai Dancing
- 2006: Miles Franklin Award (Shortlisted), and the Queensland Premier's Literary Awards Fiction Book Award for The Garden Book
- 2010: Miles Franklin Award (Shortlisted), The Bath Fugues
- 2014: Adelaide Festival Awards for Literature (Shortlisted), "Street To Street"
- 2014: Patrick White Award for Literature, Contribution to Australian Literature