John Clanchy was born in Melbourne but has lived and worked in Canberra since 1975. His two most recent novels are:
He has published four other volumes of fiction
LIE OF THE LAND (short stories, Pascoe Pub, Melbourne)
His short stories have won numerous awards, including the Commonwealth Language and Literature Prize (Europe Branch), the PEN-Air NZ Award, the Antipodes Award for Short Fiction (US), and most recently the Southern Cross Writing Award for Long Fiction (Australia, 2001 and 2002). He is currently working on a collection of short stories.
HOMECOMING (three novellas, UQP, Brisbane)
BREAKING GLASS (novel, UQP, Brisbane)
IF GOD SLEEPS (novel in collaboration with Mark Henshaw, Penguin Melb).
It was meant to be enlightening-this school trip to Central Australia. Not only does Laura suspect her best friend is having an affair with their teacher, she also finds herself caught in a tangle of deceit when a young boy mysteriously falls on the slopes of Uluru. Unnerved by the eeriness of the outback, and experiencing her first contact with Black Australia, the troubled Laura feels the earth itself is moving beneath her feet. In a landscape dominated by the Rock, she begins to understand that truth may not always be so firmly grounded. With ironic humour and engaging compassion, John Clanchy explores the rapidly changing world of a teenager in this sequel to his highly acclaimed novel: The Hard Word
