Kathryn Heyman

Kathryn Heyman (born 1965) is an Australian writer, born in Lismore, New South Wales.

Heyman is the author of four novels: "The Breaking" (1997), "Keep Your Hands on the Wheel" (1999), "The Accomplice" (2003) and most recently "Captain Starlight's Apprentice" (2006). She is also a playwright for theatre and radio and has held a number of creative writing fellowships in the UK and Australia. Her short stories have appeared in a number of collections and also on radio.

Heyman's first novel, "The Breaking", was longlisted for the Orange Prize, and shortlisted for the Scottish Writer of the Year Award. Her third, "The Accomplice", won an Arts Council England Writer's Award and was shortlisted for the Western Australian Premier's Book Awards. "The Accomplice" is a fictional account of the wreck of the Dutch flagship the Batavia off the Australian coast in the 17th century. As a meditation on complicity with evil it has been compared with the work of Joseph Conrad and William Golding. [Chevalier, Tracey [http://books.guardian.co.uk/summerreading2003/page/0,,986569,00.html "The Guardian"] ]

Her most recent novel, "Captain Starlight's Apprentice", features a woman bushranger, the birth (and near death) of the Australian film industry, and a British migrant to Australia who undergoes electroconvulsive therapy. In 2007 the novel was shortlisted for the Nita Kibble Literary Award.

Heyman's writing has been compared with that of Angela Carter, [Sanders, Kate "The Times" May 27, 2006] Peter Carey and Kate Grenville. [White, Judith "The Bulletin" May 30, 2006]

Heyman's work regularly appears on BBC Radio 4, and a five-part dramatic adaptation of "Captain Starlight's Apprentice" was broadcast on Woman's Hour in April 2007.

Books

*"The Breaking". Phoenix House (1997)
*"Keep Your Hands on the Wheel". Phoenix House (1999)
*"The Accomplice". Hodder Headline (2003)
*"Captain Starlight's Apprentice". Hodder Headline (2006). ISBN 0-7553-0217-6 (hardback), ISBN 0-7553-3115-X (trade paperback)

Plays

*The Princess Who Couldn't Fly (and a Word or Two About the Crippled King) (1990)
*Unreal (1991)
*Sex, Lies and Model Aeroplanes (1991) with David Lennie and Paul Tolton
*Exodus (1993) with David Purveur
*Dancing on the Word (1993)
*That's The Way to Do It (1994) with Josephine Enright
*Far Country (2002) starring Kerry Fox
*Keep Your Hands on the Wheel (2003) starring Kerry Fox
*Moonlight's Boy (2005)
*Captain Starlight's Apprentice (2007)

External links

* [http://www.kathrynheyman.com Official web site]
* [http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,19233649-5001986,00.html Author profile in "The Australian" newspaper (2006)]

References