MAURILIA MEEHAN is the award-winning author of five novel, including three published by PENGUIN BOOKS, and many short stories.

She had been shortlisted for many awards,including the  AUSTRALIAN VOGEL AWARD,  THE AGE BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD, the prestigious 

MILES FRANKLIN AWARD, and was a winner of the FAW STATE OF VICTORIA SHORT STORY AWARD.

Her work has been translated into French, German and her fifth novel, THE BAD SEED, has recently been translated into Chinese.

PRAISE FOR THE BAD SEED...

'A story that brings Angela Carter to mind but grows luxuriantly and defiantly in home soil...'

Cath Kenneally Sydney Morning Herald, 11/11/05

'This subtle mental torture, teamed with Meehan's elegant prose, is captivating'.

Tony Maniaty Weekend Australian, 26/11/05

 'There is something of Elizabeth Jolley in her mix of the strange and the proper, and more than a whiff of Angela Carter's wicked fairytales too...'

Michelle Griffin The Age, 21/1/06

 'Sinister flora and phantoms flourish in this rich and unforgettable work from the pen of the award-winning author of the acclaimed "Performances", "Adultery", "The Sea People" and "Fury". '

 

  Her shorter works have appeared in:

La Nouvelle Revue Francaise, Australian Short Stories, Island, Imago, Mattoid, Hecate, Angels of Power, Famous Reporter, Redoubt, Westerly, Women/Love/Sex,Fictions 88, The Art of the Story, Brave New Word, She's Fantastical, Poems from Today's Australians, Made in Australia, Lennie Lower Anthology, Webber's, Southerly, The Age, dotlit, Australian Book Review and others.

Excerpts from her earlier work appear in  MESSENGERS OF EROS, by Xavier Pons, Cambridge Scholars Publishing. Her most recent work appears in Meanjin,Spike.

And to come?

MADAME BOVARY'S HABERDASHERY is  the first in a playfully literary /noir humour trilogy.

The second  is called PRINCESS DIANA & THE POISON PEN.

The third will be MARY MAGDALENE & THE BRIDAL CHAMBER. 

She is also putting together a volume of Shorter pieces, including a literary/ noir humour novella, centring on reproductive technologies.

It will be called EVIDENCE OF INSANITY.

 

 And now for a little Ancient History...

Rumour has it that she was named afterMaurilia, the mysterious main-belt asteroid found between Mars and Jupiter...

That she comes from the city ofMaurilia, documented in Italo Calvino'sInvisible Cities...

Her delightfully irreverent first novel, PERFORMANCES, was published by Women's Redress Press, Australia, a now (unfortunately) defunct co-operative. An earlier manuscript version was shortlisted for the AUSTRALIAN VOGEL AWARD.

Then Penguin Australia published FURY, about Olympe de Gouges, an activist guillotined during the French Revolution for her surprisingly modern views on everything from the monarchy to sexual liberation. FURY was translated into German as FURIE HINTER DEN SPIEGELN (Argument Verlag).

It was shortlisted for THE AGE BOOK OF THE YEAR and the prestigious MILES FRANKLIN AWARD.

 THE SEA PEOPLE (Penguin) explores an ill-fated first settlement in Sorrento, Australia, where one of Maurilia's ancestors arrived in a convict ship. (He was transported for stealing a sheep).

As in FURY,the narrative travels back and forth in time to tell its story. THE SEA PEOPLE was shortlisted for the LOUIS BRAILLE TALKING BOOKS AWARD.  

The outrageously provocative ADULTERY, AN ENTERTAINMENT,  (Penguin) has the glory of being one of the MOST STOLEN BOOKS from libraries---a great honour bestowed on it by passionate readers.

With film-maker Franco di Chiera, ADULTERY has been made into a screenplay, with the assistance of Film Victoria.

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