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Andrea Goldsmith (writer)

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Andrea Goldsmith
BornMelbourne, Victoria, Australia
OccupationWriter, novelist
LanguageEnglish
NationalityAustralian
Notable worksThe Prosperous Thief (2002)

Andrea Goldsmith is an Australian writer and novelist, known for her 2002 novel The Prosperous Thief.

Early life and education

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Goldsmith was born in Melbourne, Victoria, to an Australian-Jewish family.[1] She started learning the piano at the age of 8, and music remains an abiding passion.[1]

Career

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Goldsmith initially trained as a speech pathologist and worked for several years with children suffering from severe communication impairment until becoming a full-time writer in the late 1980s.[2]

From 1987 and through the 1990s she taught creative writing at Deakin University, and as of 2021 continues to conduct workshops and mentor new novelists.[3]

She travels widely, and London, in particular, figures prominently in her novels. At the same time, she describes herself as 'a deeply Melbourne person'.[4]

She also writes literary essays on topics as diverse as Oliver Sacks ("Oliver Sacks: Anthropologist of Mind"), nuclear physics, life-threatening illness ("Chain Reaction") and Jewish Australian identity ("Talmudic Excursions").[citation needed]

While a writer-in-residence at La Trobe University, she edited an anthology written by a group of people with gambling problems, called Calling A Spade A Spade. She conducts workshops and short courses for fiction writers and mentors new novelists.[citation needed]

She has been a guest at all the major literary festivals in Australia, and appeared at the 2009 Sydney Writers' Festival.[citation needed]

Awards

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Personal life

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As of 2019 Goldsmith was living in Clifton Hill, in Melbourne's inner suburbs, in a house she bought with her partner, the poet Dorothy Porter.[7] She continued to live there following Porter's death in 2008.[8]

Selected works

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Novels

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References

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  1. ^ a b "Andrea Goldsmith biography". Andrea Goldsmith. 20 October 2012. Retrieved 5 April 2019.
  2. ^ Sullivan, Jane (5 April 2019). "Andrea Goldsmith: The joy of fiction is getting behind the characters' masks". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 5 April 2020.
  3. ^ "Andrea Goldsmith". AustLit. Archived from the original on 16 May 2018. Retrieved 9 September 2021.
  4. ^ Dooley, Gillian (August 2014). "They All Begin with an Idea: A Conversation with Andrea Goldsmith" (PDF). Writers in Conversation. 1 (2): 13 – via Flinders University archive.
  5. ^ "Literature". Melbourne Prize Trust. Retrieved 11 November 2023.
  6. ^ Steger, Jason (11 November 2015). "Poet Chris Wallace-Crabbe wins the Melbourne Prize for Literature". The Age. Retrieved 11 November 2023.
  7. ^ Sullivan, Jane (5 April 2019). "Andrea Goldsmith: The joy of fiction is getting behind the characters' masks". Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 16 October 2020.
  8. ^ "Porter dead at 54", Sydney Star Observer, 10 December 2008, archived from the original on 18 December 2008, retrieved 19 December 2008
  9. ^ Anderson, Don (November 2002). "The Prosperous Thief by Andrea Goldsmith". Australian Book Review (246). Retrieved 16 October 2020.
  10. ^ Case, Jo (June 2009). "'Reunion' by Andrea Goldsmith". The Monthly. Retrieved 16 October 2020.
  11. ^ Swinn, Louise (10 May 2019). "Invented Lives review: Andrea Goldsmith on the importance of the past". Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 16 October 2020.
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