Gillian Mears

Gillian Mears (21 July 1964 – 16 May 2016) was an Australian short story writer and novelist. Her books Ride a Cock Horse and The Grass Sister won a Commonwealth Writers' Prize, shortlist, in 1989 and 1996, respectively. The Mint Lawn won The Australian/Vogel Award.[1] In 2003, A Map of the Gardens won the Steele Rudd Award.[2]

Gillian Mears
Born(1964-07-21)21 July 1964
Lismore, New South Wales, Australia
Died16 May 2016(2016-05-16) (aged 51)
Near Grafton, New South Wales, Australia
OccupationWriter
LanguageEnglish
NationalityAustralian

Life

Mears was born at Lismore Base Hospital, and raised in Grafton, New South Wales where she was school dux of Grafton High School.[3]

She moved to Sydney to study at university, beginning a degree in archaeology at the University of Sydney having been inspired to pursue a career in archaeology after reading Gods, Graves and Scholars by C. W. Ceram. At the age of 18, she withdrew from the course, and instead completed a degree in communications at University of Technology, Sydney.[3]

She lived near Grafton, New South Wales. She died in May 2016 after living with multiple sclerosis for seventeen years.[4]

Bernadette Brennan has written a biography of Gillian Mears.[5]

Awards and honours

Works

Novels
  • The Mint Lawn, Allen & Unwin, 1991, ISBN 978-1-86373-016-7
  • The Grass Sister, Alfred A. Knopf, 1995, ISBN 978-0-09-183121-9
  • Foal's Bread, Allen & Unwin, 2011, ISBN 978-1-74237-629-5

Short stories
  • Ride a Cock Horse Pascoe Publishing, 1988, ISBN 978-0-947087-12-8
  • Fineflour. University of Queensland Press. 1990. ISBN 978-0-7022-2311-2.
  • Collected stories, University of Queensland Press, 1997, ISBN 978-0-7022-2950-3
  • A map of the gardens: stories, Pan Macmillan Australia, 2002, ISBN 978-0-330-36346-4[9]

Non-fiction
  • Paradise is a place, Photographer Sandy Edwards, Random House Australia, 1997, ISBN 978-0-09-183641-2

Essays

Children's book
  • The Cat with the Coloured Tail, Walker Books, 2015, ISBN 9781922077400 (illustrated by Dinale Dabarera)

References
  1. The Prime of Ms Mears, archived from the original on 4 March 2016
  2. "Alive in Ant and Bee by Gillian Mears". Australian Broadcasting Corporation. February 2009. Archived from the original on 12 November 2012.
  3. Purcell, John. "Gillian Mears, author of Foal's Bread, answers Ten Terrifying Questions". Booktopia. Retrieved 21 May 2016.
  4. Steger, Jason (19 May 2016). "Gillian Mears: Prize-winning author and euthanasia advocate dies". The Sydney Morning Herald. Fairfax Media. Archived from the original on 21 May 2016.
  5. Bernadette Brennan (September 2021). "Leaping into Waterfalls". Allen & Unwin. Retrieved 10 October 2021.
  6. Allen and Unwin, Foal's Bread
  7. ALS Gold Medal: Previous award winners, Association for the Study of Australian Literature, 2014, archived from the original on 11 December 2014
  8. Romei, Stephen (23 July 2012). "Mears wins PM's literary award for Foal's Bread". The Australian. News Limited.
  9. Bond, Sue (October 2002), A Map of the Gardens, archived from the original on 30 September 2012

Further reading
  • Hawley, Janet (7 May 2002). "Runaway success". The Sydney Morning Herald. Fairfax Media. Archived from the original on 13 November 2015.
  • Brennan, Bernadette. "Romance and reality" (PDF). Openbook. State Library of NSW. pp. 52–55. Retrieved 16 May 2022.


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