Writers on Writers: Nam Le on David Malouf

Join author and University of Melbourne alumnus Nam Le in conversation with Christos Tsiolkas, discussing his new book, Nam Le on David Malouf, the fifth in the Writer on Writers series, released on 6 May 2019.

Writers on Writers is a series of six short books where leading writers reflect on another Australian writer who has inspired and influenced them. Provocative and crisp, these books start a fresh conversation between past and present, shed new light on the craft of writing, and introduce some intriguing and talented authors and their work. The series is a collaboration between independent publisher Black Inc, the University of Melbourne and State Library Victoria.

Presenters

Nam Le was born in Vietnam and raised in Australia. For his first book, The Boat, he received the Anisfield Wolf Book Award, the PEN/Malamud Award, the Dylan Thomas Prize, the Australian Prime Minister's Literary Award, the Melbourne Prize for Literature (Best Writing Award), the NSW Premier's Literary Award for Book of the Year, the Sydney Morning Herald Best Young Novelist Award, the Pushcart Prize, the Michener Copernicus Society of America Award, a U.S. National Book Foundation "5 Under 35" Fiction Selection, as well as other awards, fellowships and shortlistings. The Boat was selected as a New York Times Notable Book and Editor's Choice, the 1 fiction book of 2008 by The Oregonian, the best debut of 2008 by New York Magazine and the Australian Book Review, and a book of the year by numerous venues around the world including The Guardian, The Independent, The Los Angeles Times, The Chicago Tribune, The Christian Science Monitor, The National Post, The Australian, The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, Amazon and Publishers Weekly. The Boat has been translated into fourteen languages and its stories widely anthologised and taught.

Christos Tsiolkas is the author of five novels: Loaded, which was made into the feature film HeadOn, The Jesus Man and Dead Europe, which won the 2006 Age Fiction Prize and the 2006 Melbourne Best Writing Award. He won Overall Best Book in the Commonwealth Writers' Prize 2009, was shortlisted for the 2009 Miles Franklin Literary Award, longlisted for the 2010 Man Booker Prize and won the Australian Literary Society Gold Medal for his novel, The Slap, which was also announced as the 2009 Australian Booksellers Association and Australian Book Industry Awards Books of the Year. His recent essay On Patrick White was published in 2018 as part of the critically acclaimed Writers on Writers series. In this passionate and original book, he shows how the Nobel Prize winner's work still speaks to us.