Thomas Keneally was born in 1935 and his first novel was published in 1964. Since then he has written a considerable number of novels and non-fiction works including The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith, Schindler's List and The People's Train. His history books include The Great Shame, Australians and The Commonwealth of Thieves.
Achievements:
Thomas has won the Miles Franklin Award, the Booker Prize, the Los Angeles Times Prize, the Mondello International Prize, the Helmrich Award (US), and has been made a Literary Lion of the New York Public Library. He is recipient of the University of California gold medal and is now the subject of a 55 cent Australian stamp.
He is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Royal Society of Literature. He has honorary doctorates from the National University of Ireland; the University of Queensland; the Catholic University of Australia; the University of Western Sydney; Rollins College (US); Fairleigh Dickenson University (US); University of Technology, Sydney. He has held academic posts at New York University and the University of California.
Thomas lives in Manly, Sydney.
