Cirrus@Austlit

Roanna Gonsalves (PhD., UNSW) is the author of The Permanent Resident (UWAP), published in India as Sunita De Souza Goes To Sydney (Speaking Tiger). The book won the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards Multicultural Prize 2018, and was longlisted for the Dobbie Literary Award 2018. It is on several lists of must-read books, and on the syllabi of university courses. Her work has been compared to the work of Alice Munro and Jhumpa Lahiri. Her four-part radio documentary series, On the Tip of a Billion Tongues (ABC RN Earshot) is an acerbic socio-political portrayal of contemporary India through its multilingual writers.

Her many honours include the Prime Minister’s Australia-Asia Endeavour Award, an Australian Writers’ Guild Award, and fellowships at Varuna and Bundanon. Roanna was the UNSW CAL Writer-in-Residence 2018, is founding co-editor of Southern Crossings, and sits on the Board of Writing NSW. She has been an invited keynote speaker and guest at several writers’ festivals, and is a highly regarded teacher and workshop facilitator. Her research interests include the sociology of the arts, social media, creativity studies, publishing studies, and postcolonial literatures. In 2019, she was teaching at a number of universities in Sydney, and can be found at @roannagonsalves.