Nicole Bourke

Nicole (Nike) Bourke (born September, 1968) is an Australian novelist.

Career

Bourke was the 2000 winner of the Queensland Premier's Literary Award for Best Emerging Author for The Bone Flute. She has also written The True Green of Hope as well as the children's picture book What The Sky Knows (illustrated by Stella Danalis). She was the winner of the QLD Premier's Literary Award, short-listed for two Children's Book Council of Australia awards, and was short-listed for the Commonwealth Writers' Prize, Asia Pacific Region. She has also won several short story awards. She completed an undergraduate degree in literature and theatre at Griffith University, gained First Class Honours and the University Medal, and subsequently completed a doctorate in Creative Writing (2002) at the same university. Her doctoral thesis was title From the Cradle to the Grave: A History of Infanticide and included the novel The Bone Flute.

She has published widely, both nationally and internationally as a short fiction writer, and as a reviewer and non-fiction writer, contributing articles to The Australian, Griffith Review and the Courier Mail. She has acted as a literary judge for the QLD Premier's Literary Awards, and The James Tiptree Award. She has a PhD from Griffith University and a strong background in academic research and writing . She taught creative writing at Griffith University and later at QUT. Since 2007 she has been the co-director of Olvar Wood Writers Retreat, and one of the editors of Perilous Adventures a literary magazine .

The Bone Flute

The Bone Flute by N. A. Bourke

This novel won the 2000 QLD Premier's Literary Award for an emerging author in 2000. It was published by University of Queensland Press in 2001 and was subsequently short-listed for the Commonwealth Writers Award in the Best First Book category. The novel is set in rural Australia and in Sydney. It is told in first person, from the viewpoint of the young woman Germaine. The "Stirling Library" catalogue describes this book as "A mesmerizing novel that confronts our assumptions about choice and responsibility. It takes us deep into the psyche of a young woman unable to escape domestic abuse."^[1]

The True Green of Hope

Published by UQP in 2005. Google books describe this novel as "examining the complex relationship between mothers and daughters, this provocative novel explores the nature of love and memory and how they shape truth". An extract of the first chapter is available on Bourke’s website.

What the Sky Knows

Published by UQP in 2005. Illustrated by Stella Danalis. Written for the author's daughter as a birthday gift, this book was shortlisted for two categories in the Children's Book Counil of Australia Awards in 2005. The University of Queensland Press describes this book as "a book of wonder, curiosity, and imagination". A review is available from "Books from My Backyard" at http://www.queenslandbooks.com/schools/01_cms/details.asp?ID=36.

References

1. ^ Extract from author website

External links

• Author’s official website
• Olvar Wood Writer's Retreat Bourke is the co-director and one of the teaching faculty
• [1] University of Queensland Press
• A Feather on the Breath of God (short story) in Eatbooks
• Perilous Adventures: The writers Magazine Bourke is one of the editors

Persondata
Name	Bourke, Nicole
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1968
Place of birth
Date of death
Place of death