Glenda Adams

Glenda Emilie Adams (née Felton; 30 December 1939 – 11 July 2007) was an Australian novelist and short story writer, probably best known as the winner of the 1987 Miles Franklin Award for Dancing on Coral. She was a teacher of creative writing, and helped develop writing programs.

Adams' work is found in her own books and short story collections, in numerous short story anthologies, and in journals and magazines. Her essays, stories and articles have been published in, among other magazines, Meanjin, The New York Times Book Review, Panorama, Quadrant, Southerly, Westerly, The Sydney Morning Herald, The Observer and The Village Voice.

Life Glenda Emilie Felton was born in Ryde, New South Wales, a suburb of Sydney, the younger of two children. She attended Fort Street Primary School for two years and Sydney Girls High School before going to the University of Sydney from which she graduated with an honours degree in Indonesian. She was posthumously awarded the biennial ASA Medal of the Australian Society of Authors.

Literary career Adams started writing at the age of 10, with the encouragement of her mother.

While at Columbia University, she joined a fiction workshop and started writing using her real name, after using a male name prior to that to prevent her friends knowing she was writing fiction. ), and the American Grace Paley. Formerly the UTS Award for New Writing, the award was renamed in 2008 to honour Adams.