Sonya Hartnett

Sonya Hartnett
Born (1968-03-23) 23 March 1968
Box Hill, Victoria, Australia
Pen name Cameron S. Redfern
Occupation Writer
Language English
Nationality Australian
Period 1984–present
Genre Novels, especiallyyoung adult fiction; children's picture books
Notable awards Guardian Prize
2002
Astrid Lindgren Award
2008

Sonya Louise Hartnett (born 23 March 1968 in Box Hill, Victoria)[1] is an Australian author of fiction for adults, young adults, and children. She has been called "the finest Australian writer of her generation".[2] For her career contribution to "children's and young adult literature in the broadest sense" Hartnett won the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award from the Swedish Arts Council in 2008, the biggest prize in children's literature.[3][4]

She has published books as Sonya Hartnett, S. L. Hartnett, and Cameron S. Redfern.[1][5]

Writer

She was thirteen years old when she wrote her first novel and fifteen when it was published for the adult market in Australia, Trouble All the Way (Adelaide: Rigby Publishers, 1984).[6] For years she has written about one novel annually.[5] Although she is often classified as a writer of young adult fiction, Hartnett does not consider this label entirely accurate: "I've been perceived as a young adult writer whereas my books have never really been young adult novels in the sort of classic sense of the idea." She believes the distinction is not so important in Britain as in native land.[7]

According to the National Library of Australia, "The novel for which Hartnett has achieved the most critical (and controversial) acclaim was Sleeping Dogs" (1995). "A book involving incest between brother and sister and often critiqued as 'without hope', Sleeping Dogs generated enormous discussion both within Australia and overseas."[1]

Many of Hartnett's books have been published in the UK and in North America. For Thursday's Child (2000, UK 2002), she won the annual Guardian Children's Fiction Prize, a once-in-a-lifetime book award judged by a panel of British children's writers.[8][9]

Landscape with Animals controversy

In 2006, Hartnett was involved with some controversy regarding the publication of Landscape with Animals, published under the pseudonym Cameron S. Redfern. The book contains many sex scenes and Hartnett was almost immediately "outed" as the author. She said that she wanted to avoid the book being accidentally shelved with her work for children in libraries and denied that she used a pseudonym to evade responsibility for the work or as a publicity stunt à la Nikki Gemmell's The Bride Stripped Bare.[10] In a review published in The Age, Peter Craven savaged the book describing it as an "overblown little sex shocker", a "tawdry little crotch tickler" and lamented that Hartnett was "too good a writer to put her name to this indigestible hairball of spunk and spite".[2] It was defended vigorously in the The Australian by Marion Halligan ("I haven't read many books by Hartnett, but I think this is a much more amazing piece of writing than any of them") who chastised Craven for missing the joke ("How could an experienced critic get that so wrong?") and wonders why female authors writing frankly about sex is so frowned upon.[11]

Works and awards

Picture books

Junior fiction

Teen and young adult fiction

Adult fiction

She also contributed to There Must Be Lions: Stories about Mental Illness (1998) with Nick Earls and Heide Seaman.

Adult non-fiction

References

  1. 1 2 3 (National Library of Australia identity file). Virtual International Authority File (VIAF). Retrieved 8 August 2012.
  2. 1 2 Peter Craven (20 May 2006). "Landscape with Animals" (review). The Age.
  3. ↑ "2008: Sonya Hartnett: A Concealed Yet Palpable Anger". The Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award. Retrieved 2012-08-13.
  4. ↑ Ray Cassin (14 March 2008). "Hartnett wins top prize for children's literature". The Sydney Morning Herald (smh.com.au). Retrieved 22 March 2008.
  5. 1 2 "Hartnett, Sonya (a.k.a. Hartnett, S. L.)". Austlit Agent Details. Retrieved 28 August 2007. (subscription required for full access)
  6. ↑ It has been classified as Juvenile Fiction by some libraries. Trouble All the Way in libraries (WorldCat catalog). Retrieved 3 June 2013.
  7. ↑ "Sonya Hartnett: London, 2002" (interview, part 1 of 5). ACHUKA (achuka.co.uk). 2002.
  8. 1 2 The Guardian Children's Fiction Prize 2002 (top page). guardian.co.uk. Retrieved 8 August 2012.
  9. 1 2 "Guardian children's fiction prize relaunched: Entry details and list of past winners". guardian.co.uk. 12 March 2001. Retrieved 8 August 2012.
  10. ↑ Sonya Hartnett (28 May 2006). "Faking It". The Age.
  11. ↑ Marion Halligan (24 June 2006). "Sex and the singular woman". The Australian.
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