Olga Lorenzo Olga Lorenzo i(A14307 works by)
Born: Established: 1959 Havana,
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Cuba,
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Caribbean, Americas,
;
Gender: Female
Arrived in Australia: 1980-1989
Heritage: Cuban
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BiographyHistory

Olga Lorenzo grew up in Miami, where, she says, she was a card-carrying alien. There were no jobs and no welfare. The family lived in a squalid laundry room in Little Havanna, two metres by 2.5 metres, shared with another family, and experienced racial prejudice ('Protecting tolerance may require less tolerance', The Age January 13, 2004). She studied at Washington University, St Louis, Missouri.

Coming to Australia in the 1980s she worked as a journalist at the Melbourne Age. Here she met her husband, cartoonist John Spooner.

Lorenzo has a PhD in Creative Writing from Melbourne University, the subject of her thesis being 'Through a Glass Darkly: The Role of Shame in the Mirrored Self in Theory and in Fiction', and she has taught at RMIT University.

Most Referenced Works

Awards for Works

y separately published work icon The Light on the Water Crows Nest : Allen and Unwin , 2016 9114748 2016 single work novel crime

'A little girl disappears in the wilderness. Two years later her mother is arrested for her murder. A provocative and unflinching literary novel of love, guilt and grief set against the wilderness of the Australian coast.

'Anne Forster, recently divorced and trying to find her feet, takes her daughter Aida on an overnight bushwalk in the moody wilderness of Wilson's Promontory. Aida, who is six and autistic, disappears; Anne returns from the walk alone. Some of the emergency trackers searching for Aida already doubt Anne's story.

'Nearly two years later and still tormented by remorse and grief, Anne is charged with her daughter's murder. Witnesses have come forward, offering evidence which points to her guilt. She is stalked by the media and shunned by friends, former colleagues and neighbours.

'On bail and awaiting trial, Anne works to reconstruct her last hours with Aida. She remembers the sun high in the sky, the bush noisy with insects, and her own anxiety, seemingly as oppressive as the heat haze.

'A superbly written and conceived literary work about the best and the worst aspects of family life, this story asks difficult questions about society, the media, and our rush to judgment. This is a thoughtful, provocative and unflinching novel in the tradition of Helen Garner, Joan London and Charlotte Wood, from a respected writer and renowned teacher of writing.' (Publication summary)

2017 longlisted Davitt Award Best Adult Crime Novel
Last amended 21 Feb 2006 11:56:01
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