Nick Earls
BornNicholas Francis Ward Earls
(1963-10-08) 8 October 1963 (age 60)
Newtownards, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom
OccupationNovelist
NationalityAustralian
Website
nickearls.wordpress.com

Nicholas Francis Ward Earls (born 8 October 1963) is a novelist from Brisbane, Australia, who writes humorous popular fiction about everyday life. The majority of his novels are set in his home town of Brisbane. He fronted a major Brisbane tourism campaign.[1]

Biography

Earls was born on 8 October 1963 in Newtownards, Northern Ireland.[2] He emigrated to Australia with his parents and sister at the age of nine. Living in Brisbane, he was educated at the Anglican Church Grammar School there.[3] He completed a medical degree at the University of Queensland and worked as a GP before turning to writing.[4]

Career

Earls has been compared to Nick Hornby.[5] Zigzag Street, his second novel, won the Betty Trask Award in 1998[6] (sharing with Kiran Desai's Hullaballoo in the Guava Orchard). His young-adult novel, 48 Shades of Brown, won the Children's Book Council of Australia Book of the Year Award for older readers in 2000.[7] Several of his novels (After January and 48 Shades of Brown) have been adapted for theatre, and 48 Shades of Brown was adapted into a film entitled 48 Shades, released in August 2006. Earls has also written other novels, including Bachelor Kisses (which borrows its title from a song by Brisbane band The Go-Betweens), Perfect Skin, World of Chickens, The Thompson Gunner, and young adult novels After January, and Making Laws for Clouds.[8]

Earls has also contributed to the four best-selling anthologies in the Girls' Night In series as well as Kids' Night In and Kids' Night in 2 as editor. His most recent novels are Welcome to Normal, a collection of original short stories, The True Story of Butterfish, about a former rock star re-adjusting to mundane life in the Brisbane suburbs, and Monica Bloom, based on his own adolescent experience of an ill-fated crush.[4]

Several of his books have been adapted for the stage by Brisbane's La Boite Theatre Company.

He is referenced in the film All My Friends Are Leaving Brisbane.

Bibliography

This list is incomplete; you can help by adding missing items. (August 2015)
Year Work Notes
2021 Empires novel
2017 Wisdom Tree novella series
2015 New Boy novel
2014 Analogue Men novel
2012 Welcome to Normal short stories
2011 The Fix novel
2009 The True Story of Butterfish novel
2007 Joel and Cat Set the Story Straight young adult novel, co-written with Rebecca Sparrow
A revealed life: Australian writers and their journeys in memoir collection of memoirs from Australian writers, including Nick Earls, edited by Julianne Schultz
2006 Monica Bloom young adult novel
Making waves: 10 years of the Byron Bay Writers Festival collection of short works by Australian authors, including Nick Earls, edited by Marele Day, Susan Bradley Smith and Fay Knight
2004 The Thompson Gunner novel
2003 Kid's Night In edited by Jessica Adams, Juliet Partridge and Nick Earls
2002 Making Laws for Clouds young adult novel
2001 World of Chickens novel
2000 Penguin Australian Summer Stories 3 collection of short stories by Australian authors including Nick Earls
Perfect Skin novel
1999 48 Shades of Brown young adult novel
1998 Bachelor Kisses novel. Set in a house in Bayliss Street, Toowong, Brisbane, Australia.[9]
There Must Be Lions: Stories About Mental Illness with Sonya Hartnett and Heide Seaman, features Nick Earl's short story There Must Be Lions
The Gift of Story edited by Marion Halligan and Rosanne Fitzgibbon, features Nick Earls' short story Plaza
1996 Zigzag Street novel. Set in a house addressed as 34 Zigzag Street, Red Hill, Brisbane, Australia.[10]
After January young adult novel
Smashed: Australian drinking stories collection, edited by Matthew Condon and Richard Lawson, includes Nick Earls' short story Green
Original Sin edited by Robyn Sheahan, includes Nick Earls' short story Box-shaped Heart
Sporting Declaration edited by Manfred Jurgensen, includes Nick Earls' short story PE
Blur: Stories by young Australian writers edited by James Bradley, includes Nick Earls' short story Head games
1995 Paradise To Paranoia: New Queensland Writing edited by Nigel Krauth and Robyn Sheehan, includes Nick Earls' short story Meanwhile, thirty-eight above Charlotte
Picador New Writing 3 edited by Drusilla Modjeska and Beth Yahp, includes Nick Earls' short story The Goatflap brothers and the house of names
Nightmares in Paradise compiled by Robyn Sheahan, includes Nick Earls' short story Juliet

For children

Series: Word Hunters

  1. Earls, Nick; Whidborne, Terry (2012). The curious dictionary. St Lucia, Qld: University of Queensland Press.

Short fiction

Title Year First published Reprinted/collected
Moving 1993 Earls, Nick (1993). "Moving". Outrider: A Journal of Multicultural Literature in Australia. 10: 49–58. Issue titled Queensland, words and all. Earls, Nick (1999). Headgames. Ringwood, Vic: Penguin. pp. 233–246.
Dog 1, Dog 2 1993 Earls, Nick (1993). "Dog 1, Dog 2". Outrider: A Journal of Multicultural Literature in Australia. 10: 59–64. Issue titled Queensland, words and all.
  • Earls, Nick (1999). Headgames. Ringwood, Vic: Penguin. pp. 73–84.
  • Kaminsky, Leah, ed. (2010). The pen and the stethoscope. Carlton North, Vic: Scribe. pp. 156–164.

Collections

Poetry

Critical studies and reviews

References

  1. ^ Media Release: Nick Earls tells Brisbane's story through new campaign Archived 24 July 2008 at the Wayback Machine, Brisbane Marketing, 20 March 2002.
  2. ^ Author: Nick Earls, Penguin Group
  3. ^ Mason, James (2011). Churchie: The Centenary Register. Brisbane, Australia: The Anglican Church Grammar School. ISBN 978-0-646-55807-3.
  4. ^ a b Silkstone, Dan: Mature face of Aussie lad lit, The Age, 15 July 2006.
  5. ^ Wyndham, Susan: The Hot Seat: Nick Earls, The Sydney Morning Herald, 2 September 2006.
  6. ^ "The Betty Trask Prizes and Awards:Past Winners". The Society of Authors. Archived from the original on 24 June 2013.
  7. ^ "Winners 2000 - 2006 - CBCA". Archived from the original on 5 January 2010. Retrieved 9 October 2015.
  8. ^ Sunny Garden – The Official Nick Earls Website. Sunny Garden – The Official Nick Earls Website. 23 April 2007.
  9. ^ Earls, Nick (1998). Bachelor Kisses. Ringwood, VIC: Viking. p. 20. ISBN 0670877859.
  10. ^ Earls, Nick (1996). Zigzag Street. Moorebank, NSW: Anchor. p. 104. ISBN 0868246786.

External links

Authority control databases
Categories