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Brian Castro

{{Short description|Australian novelist and essayist}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2023}}

{{Infobox writer

| name = Brian Castro

| image =

| alt =

| caption =

| birth_name = Brian Albert Castro

| birth_date = {{Birth year and age|1950}}

| birth_place = At sea, near Hong Kong

| death_date =

| death_place =

| occupation = Novelist and essayist

| language = English

| nationality = Australian

| ethnicity =

| citizenship =

| education =

| alma_mater =

| notableworks = Shanghai Dancing

| awards =

| years_active = 1973–

}}

Brian Albert Castro (born 1950) is an Australian novelist and essayist.

Early life and education

Castro was born at sea, between Macau and Hong Kong, in 1950. His father was of Spanish, Portuguese, and English descent, and born in Shanghai. His mother was the daughter of a Chinese farmer and an English missionary. His first language was Cantonese Chinese, but his maternal grandmother taught him English, and he also learnt Macanese Portuguese (spoken in Macao) and French.{{Cite web |title=Brian Castro |url=https://www.austlit.edu.au/austlit/page/A5761 |access-date=2023-07-08 |website=AustLit |publisher=The University of Queensland}}

He moved to Australia in 1961, first attending a boarding school in Sydney,at St Joseph's College, Hunters Hill and the University of Sydney, after which he worked in Australia, France and Hong Kong as a teacher and writer.{{cite web |title=Brian Castro - Official web site |url=http://www.lythrumpress.com.au/castro/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060822110434/http://www.lythrumpress.com.au/castro/ |archive-date=22 August 2006 |website=Brian Castro}}

Career

He was Chair of Creative Writing (2008–2019) at the University of Adelaide and director of the J. M. Coetzee Centre for Creative Practice there.{{cite web | url=https://www.adelaide.edu.au/directory/brian.castro | title=Professor Brian Castro | publisher=The University of Adelaide | access-date=19 September 2019}} {{cite web | url=https://www.adelaide.edu.au/jmcoetzeecentre/| title=J. M. Coetzee Centre for Creative Practice | publisher=The University of Adelaide | access-date=19 September 2019 }}

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 (Banjo Award) for Fiction. Shanghai Dancing was published by Giramondo in March 2003, winning the Victorian Premier's Literary Award and the NSW Premier's Award, and was named NSW Book of the Year. The Garden Book won the 2006 Queensland Premier's Literary Award, and The Bath Fugues was short-listed for the Miles Franklin Award, the South Australian Premier's Award, the Queensland Premier's Fiction Prize and the Victorian Premier's Literary Award.

In 2012 he published Street To Street, inspired by the life of the poet Christopher Brennan (Giramondo). Blindness and Rage won the Prime Minister's Award for Poetry in 2018.

In 2014 he won the Patrick White Award for Literature for his contribution to Australian Literature.{{cite news | url=http://www.theage.com.au/entertainment/books/patrick-white-literary-award-winner-brian-castro-recalls-his-encounter-with-the-grumpy-neighbour-20141107-11i3m7.html | title=Patrick White Literary Award winner Brian Castro recalls his encounter with the grumpy neighbour | newspaper=The Age | date=7 November 2014}}

Awards and nominations

Bibliography

=Novels and verse novels=

=Non-fiction=

  • (Monograph) Writing Asia: two lectures (1995) {{ISBN|9780731703364}}
  • Looking for Estrellita: Essays on Culture and Writing (1999) {{ISBN|9780702231155}}

=Poetry=

  • Macau Days (with John Young) (2017){{Cite web |url=http://www.artandaustralia.com/publishing/titles/macau-days |title=Macau Days |access-date=29 October 2017 |archive-date=7 November 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171107023547/http://www.artandaustralia.com/publishing/titles/macau-days |url-status=dead }}

References

{{Reflist}}

External links

  • {{Official website}}
  • [http://cordite.org.au/chapbooks-features/600-lines-of-blindness-rage/ '600 Lines of Blindness & Rage'], by Brian Castro, Cordite Poetry Review
  • [http://www.lythrumpress.com.au/castro/index.html Brian Castro at Lythrumpress.com.au]
  • [https://web.archive.org/web/20070814204519/http://www.giramondopublishing.com/imprint_titles/shanghai_dancing/brian_castro.html Brian Castro at Giramondo Publishing]
  • [https://web.archive.org/web/20080722225859/http://www.ozarts.com.au/artists/brian_castro OzArts – Brian Castro]
  • [http://www.nla.gov.au/openpublish/index.php/jasal/article/view/251/459 Bernadette Brennan 'Unpacking Castro's Library, or Detours and Return in The Garden Book ' JASAL Special Issue 2007]
  • [http://www.cambriapress.com/cambriapress.cfm?template=4&bid=257 Bernadette Brennan Brian Castro's Fiction: The Seductive Play of Language Cambria Press, 2008]

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Castro, Brian}}

Category:1950 births

Category:Living people

Category:20th-century Australian novelists

Category:20th-century Australian male writers

Category:21st-century Australian novelists

Category:Australian male novelists

Category:Australian non-fiction writers

Category:Australian people of English descent

Category:Australian people of Chinese descent

Category:People educated at St Joseph's College, Hunters Hill

Category:21st-century Australian male writers

Category:Australian male non-fiction writers

Category:People educated at Oakhill College

Category:Patrick White Award winners