Cirrus@Austlit

Claire G. Coleman is a Noongar woman whose family have belonged to the south coast of Western Australia since long before recorded history. She writes fiction, essays, poetry and art criticism while living in Naarm (Melbourne) and travelling around Australia. Born in Whadjuk Noongar Boodjar (Perth), she has lived most of her life in Victoria and on the road.

During an extended circuit of the continent, she wrote her debut novel, Terra Nullius (2017), which was influenced by her travels. The novel artfully blends historical and speculative fiction to tell the story of an all too familiar Australia. It was published by Hachette Australia and republished in North America by Small Beer Press. She has since won a Black&Write! Indigenous Writing Fellowship for Terra Nullius.

Claire's second novel, The Old Lie (2019), takes readers to a familiar world to again ask them what we have learned from the past. Her first non-fiction book, Lies, Damned Lies (2021), unpacks the effects of Australia’s colonial history and won her the University of Queensland Non-Fiction Book Award. Her fourth book, Enclave, is a powerful dystopian allegory that was published by Hatchette Australia in 2022. 

In May 2020, it was announced that Claire was one of the participants in Malthouse Theatre's Malcolm Robertson Writers Program, writing a play called Black Betty at the End of the World. Since mid-2020 she has also been a member of the cultural advisory committee for Agency, a not-for-profit Indigenous arts consultancy (https://agencyprojects.org/). 

Source: https://clairegcoleman.com/index.html