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.