Gillian Bouras

Infobox Person


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name = Gillian Bouras
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birth_date = birth date and age|1945|8|18
birth_place = Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
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residence = Alternates between Greece and London
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known_for = Writing fiction, non-fiction and children's works
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occupation = Writer
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spouse = George Bouras
partner =
children = Three sons
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Gillian Bouras (born August 18, 1945) is an expatriate Australian writer who has written several books, stories and articles, many of them dealing with her experiences as an Australian woman in Greece.

Life

Gillian Bouras was born in Melbourne in 1945. Both her parents and her grandfather were teachers. Her childhood was spent moving around country Victoria, including Nhill and Beechworth, and Melbourne. [Bouras (2006) p. 12]

She studied for her Bachelor of Arts at the University of Melbourne, and from 1967 to 1980 she worked as a secondary school teacher of English. In 1981 she completed her Master of Education thesis at the same universityBouras (c.2003)] on the life of her grandfather: "School teacher in Victoria: the biography of Arthur John Hicks".National Library of Australia]

She married George Bouras, a Greek emigrant to Australia, in 1969. In 1980 she went with her husband and her two sons to the Peloponnese area of Greece, initially for a six-month holiday but they ended up staying. She had her third son in Greece, and eventually took out Greek citizenship.

In 1996, her younger sister Jacqui committed suicide, after decades of mental illness. Bouras' book, "No Time for Dances", explores her sister's life in an attempt to understand her suicide. As she writes: "I keep trying to close a mental door, or to put a very firm lid on these questions, for there are no answers, and writing them down is one way of attempting closure". [Bouras (2006) p. 6]

She spends her time between London and Greece, as well as maintaining ties with Australia.

Career

Bouras published her first book, the autobiographical "A foreign wife", in 1986. It describes her life as a foreign wife in Greece, and the challenges she faced in living within Greek culture and society. Most of the works she has published since then, both autobiographical and fiction, explore the themes of exile, cultural identity, and family.

Bouras has also had short stories and articles published in newspapers and journals such as "The Griffith Review", "Meanjin" and "Island". She has presented papers at conferences and participated in literary events, in Australia and elsewhere.

Since approximately 2000, she has also prepared discussion notes for the book group program managed by Victoria's Council of Adult Education (CAE).

Awards and nominations

*1994: "Aphrodite and the Others": Ethnic Affairs Commission Award in the New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards
*2007: "No Time for Dances": Shortlisted for the National Biography Award [Good Reading Magazine]

Works

Non-fiction

*"A Foreign Wife" (1986)
*"A Fair Exchange" (1991)
*"Aphrodite and the Others" (1994)
*"Starting Again" (1999)
*"No Time for Dances: A Memoir of my Sister" (2006)

Fiction, Adult

*"A Stranger Here" (1996)

Fiction, Children's

*"Saving Christmas" (2000)
*"Aphrodite Alexandra" (2007)

External links

* [http://www.abc.net.au/rn/lifematters/stories/2006/1640771.htm "Gillian Bouras: A Sister's Story", on ABC Radio National "Life Matters", 2006-05-18] Accessed: 2007-11-12

Notes

References

* [http://www.aph.gov.au/SENATE/committee/legcon_ctte/expats03/submissions/sub179.doc Bouras, Gillian (c.2003) Submission No. 179 to the Senate Inquiry into Australian Expatriates] Accessed: 2007-11-12
*Bouras, Gillian (2006) "No Time for Dances: A Memoir of My Sister", Camberwell, Penguin
* [http://www.goodreadingmagazine.com.au/newsarchive.cfm?showMonth=3&showYear=2007 Good Reading Magazine News Archive, 2007-03-19] Accessed: 2007-11-12
* [http://nla.gov.au/nla.ms-ms7993 National Library of Australia, Papers of Gillian Bouras, Ms7993] Accessed: 2007-11-12
*Wilde, William H., Hooton, Joy and Andrews, Barry (1994) "The Oxford Companion to Australian Literature" 2nd ed., Melbourne, Oxford University Press

Persondata
NAME=Bouras, Gillian
ALTERNATIVE NAMES=
SHORT DESCRIPTION=Writer of fiction and nonfiction
DATE OF BIRTH=1945
PLACE OF BIRTH= Melbourne, Victoria
DATE OF DEATH=
PLACE OF DEATH=