Michelle de Kretser

Michelle de Kretser (born 1957) is an Australian novelist who was born in Sri Lanka (then Ceylon). She is a two-time winner of the Miles Franklin Award who has won the Christina Stead Prize for Fiction on three occasions.

Early life and education Born in Sri Lanka (then Ceylon), de Kretser moved to Australia in 1972 when she was 14. Her father was Oswald Leslie De Kretser III, a judge of the Supreme Court of Ceylon.

She was educated at Methodist College, Colombo, in Melbourne at Elwood College, and in Paris.

Career She worked as an editor for the travel guide company Lonely Planet, and while on a sabbatical in 1999, wrote and published her first novel, The Rose Grower. Her second novel, The Hamilton Case, was winner of the Tasmania Pacific Prize, the Encore Award (in the UK) and the Commonwealth Writers' Prize (Southeast Asia and Pacific). Her third novel, The Lost Dog, was published in 2007. It was one of 13 books on the longlist for the 2008 Man Booker Prize.

From 1989 to 1992, she was a founding editor of the Australian Women's Book Review. Her fourth novel, Questions of Travel, won several awards, including the 2013 Miles Franklin Award, the 2013 ALS Gold Medal, and the 2013 Prime Minister's Literary Award for Fiction. It was also shortlisted for the 2014 International Dublin Literary Award.

Her 2017 novel, The Life to Come, was shortlisted for the 2018 Stella Prize, and won both the Miles Franklin Award and the Christina Stead Prize for Fiction. This is the third time Michelle de Kretser has won this prize and equals Peter Carey's record of wins.

Her novel Theory & Practice (2024) starts as one novel but is interrupted by another. As a whole, the novel asks what is the real relationship between theory and practice. One of its central themes is how heroes of fiction and theory often let us down. For instance, Virginia Woolf is held up as a hero to the protagonist, but Woolf's antisemitism and her racism becomes impossible for the narrator to ignore. She "writes back" to Woolf. The theme of women not living up to feminist values in real life - in practice - is explored through the narrator's relationship with Kit, who is already in a relationship with Olivia. Or the narrator's rejection of her own mother.

Awards 2004 – Commonwealth Writers' Prize, South-East Asia and the Pacific for The Hamilton Case 2004 – Encore Award for The Hamilton Case 2005 – Tasmania Pacific Award for The Hamilton Case 2007 – Liberatur Award for The Hamilton Case 2008 – ALS Gold Medal for The Lost Dog 2008 – New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards – Christina Stead Prize for Fiction and Book of the Year for The Lost Dog 2013 – ALS Gold Medal for Questions of Travel 2013 – Prime Minister's Literary Awards Fiction Prize for Questions of Travel 2013 – Western Australian Premier's Book Awards Fiction Prize and Premier's Prize for Questions of Travel 2014 – New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards – Christina Stead Prize for Fiction and Book of the Year for Questions of Travel 2018 – Miles Franklin Award for The Life to Come 2019 – New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards – Christina Stead Prize for Fiction for The Life to Come 2023 – Rathbones Folio Prize for Fiction for Scary Monsters 2025 – Stella Prize for Theory & Practice 2025 — Prime Minister's Literary Awards for fiction — Theory & Practice

Works

Novels

The Rose Grower (1999) The Hamilton Case (2003) The Lost Dog (2007) Questions of Travel (2012) Springtime (2014) The Life to Come (2017) Scary Monsters (2021) Theory & Practice (2024)

Non-fiction On Shirley Hazzard (2019)