Flanagan, Richard (1961-)

Richard Flanagan, born in Tasmania in 1961, has given a voice to Tasmania in contemporary fiction. A Rhodes scholar, he has worked as a labourer and river guide, and all of these experiences can be found in his novels.

His books have been published to critical acclaim in both Australia and overseas. A winner of the Commonwealth Writers Prize in 2002 for Gould's Book of Fish', and he made the shortlist for his 2009 novel Wanting. However in 2003, as a passionate supporter of Tasmanian forests, he shunned the Tasmania Pacific Region Prize, when he found it was co-sponsored by Tasmania's Forestry Commission.

Richard Flanagan lives in Tasmania, where he was born in Longford in 1961.

Library Resources
eReserve
AV Resources
Web Resources
Reviews

Library Resources

Books

Fiction

Essays

Speeches

  • Seize the fire: three speeches. Gathered here are three of his recent speeches in which interweaves topics as diverse as troubadour poetry, love stories and the murder of the refugee Reza Barati; his top ten Tasmanian novels and the Australian Pacific Solution; and his much-celebrated National Press Club address where he questioned the militarisation of Australian memory and argued for the need for formal recognition of the contribution of Australian Aboriginals.

Criticism and interpretation

Non-Fiction

eReserve

Articles

In May 2007 at the height of conflict over the building of a pulp mill in the Tamar Valley, near Launceston Tasmania, Richard Flanagan published an article in The Monthly. In 'Out of control: the Tragedy of Tasmania's Forests' he writes passionately about 'the forests [that] are being destroyed in Tasmania, in spite of widespread community opposition and increasing international concern''.

  • Flanagan, Richard, 2014, 'On love stories and Reza Barati', In And what do you do Mr.Gable? New and collected essays, Vintage, North Sydney, N.S.W., pp. 332-363. This is Richard Flanagan' celebrated closing address from the Perth Writers Festival, 2011.

AV Resources

From the Library's collections

Australian Story: Richard Flanagan

Imagine: Life after death: Richard Flanagan journeys with Presenter, Alan Yentob through his native Tasmania, visiting the places that have inspired his novels, and on to Thailand, to see first-hand the site of the Death Railway. O

From The Wheeler Centre

Richard Flanagan: The Narrow Road of the Deep North

Web Resources

Interviews

First person

The Narrow Road to the Deep North

General

ABC Splash

The Man Booker Prize, 2014

Richard Flanagan's novel First Person is based on his own experience when he was asked to ghost write a book about the fraudster and conman John Friedrich (1950-1991).

  • You can read more about John Friedrich in an entry by Frank Bongiorno in the Australian Dictionary of Biography.

Speeches

Reviews

Fiction

Death of a river guide

Gould's book of fish

  • Banville, John, 2002, 'On fatal shore' The New York Review of Books, September

The Narrow Road to the Deep North

The Sound of one hand clapping

The Unknown terrorist

Wanting

Essays

And what do you do Mr. Gable? New and collected essays (2015)

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