Elliot Perlman

Elliot Perlman (born 7 May 1964) is an Australian author and barrister. He has written four novels (Three Dollars, Seven Types of Ambiguity, The Street Sweeper and Maybe the Horse Will Talk), one short story collection (The Reasons I Won't Be Coming) and a book for children.

Life Perlman is the son of second-generation Jewish Australians of East European descent. He studied law at Monash University in Melbourne, graduating in 1989. He was called to the Bar in 1997, but while working as a judge's associate in the early 1990s he started writing short stories. He lives in Melbourne.

Writing career In 1994 he won The Age Short Story Award for "The Reasons I Won't Be Coming", a short story that later gave the title to his first collection of short stories, published in 1999. In 1998, his first novel, Three Dollars, was published. It won The Age Book of the Year and the Betty Trask Prize. His second novel, Seven Types of Ambiguity, was shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Award, Australia's most prestigious literary award, in 2004. Perlman's third novel, The Street Sweeper, was published in 2011. In an interview in 2001 he named Graham Greene as one of the writers who inspire him, describing Greene as "a master of beautifully crisp, clean and spare prose".

Themes and style His work "condemns the economic rationalism that destroys the humanity of ordinary people when they are confronted with unemployment and poverty." This is not surprising in a writer who admires Raymond Carver and Graham Greene because they "write with quite a strong moral centre and a strong sense of compassion." 2012 Indie Book Awards Book of the Year – Fiction, winner for The Street Sweeper 2012: Miles Franklin Award: longlisted for The Street Sweeper 2005: Australian Film Institute (AFI) Awards, Best Adapted Screenplay: winner for Three Dollars 2005: Film Critics Circle of Australia, Best Screenplay – Adapted: winner for Three Dollars 2005: AWGIE Awards, Film Award, Feature: shortlisted for Three Dollars 2004: Commonwealth Writers Prize, South East Asia and South Pacific Region, Best Book: shortlisted for Seven Types of Ambiguity 2004: Queensland Premier's Literary Awards, Best Fiction Book: shortlisted for Seven Types of Ambiguity 2004: Miles Franklin Award: shortlisted for Seven Types of Ambiguity 2000: Arts Queensland Steele Rudd Australian Short Story Award: joint winner for The Reasons I Won't Be Coming 1999: Betty Trask Award for Commonwealth Writers Under 35 Years: winner for Three Dollars 1999: Queensland Premier's Literary Awards, Best Literary Work Advancing Public Debate: joint winner for Three Dollars 1999: Miles Franklin Award: shortlisted for Three Dollars 1998: The Age Book of the Year Award, Book of the Year: winner for Three Dollars 1998: The Age Book of the Year Award, Fiction Prize: winner for Three Dollars 1994: The Age Short Story Award: winner for The Reasons I Won't Be Coming