Cirrus@Austlit

Born in 1935 in Sydney, Thomas Keneally is an Australian literary legend. Keneally was raised near Kempsey and grew up in the Sydney suburb of Homebush. He attended St Patrick’s Strathfield before studying at St Patrick’s Seminary. Keneally trained for several years for the Catholic priesthood, although he was an ordained deacon, he never became a priest. Since his first novel was published in 1964, Keneally has published more than 35 novels, 18 non-fiction works and several plays.

Prior to his career as a writer, Thomas worked for the Department of Territories, collecting instalments and as a clerk and a schoolteacher. He taught drama at the University of New England early in his career and went on to teach creative writing at the University of California, Irvine. Interested not only in Australian history, but also in that of other parts of the world, Keneally has travelled widely and lived abroad, experiences reflected in the great variety of geographical and historical settings of his books. In 1987, for example, he travelled in Eritrea under the protection of the Eritrean Liberation Front, an event that formed the basis of his book on the Ethiopian-Eritrean war, Towards Asmara(1988).

Known for his dry Aussie humour as well as his moral stance and his commitment for the fate of ordinary people, Keneally has become an Australian public figure and advocate. A staunch supporter of Australian republicanism, he also wrote an account of his views on this controversial public issue, Our Republic (1993). Keneally was the founding chairman of the Australian Republic Movement and continues to write about Australia’s histories and future in both novels and short forms. 

One of Australia’s most prolific and distinguished writers, he has won numerous awards nationally and internationally. Among a multitude of achievements, in 1983 Keneally received an Order of Australia for his service to literature. In 1997 he was announced an Australian National Living Treasure and in 2019 he earned an ASA Medal (Australian Society of Authors Medal) in recognition for outstanding contributions to the Australian writing community. As of 2025, Keneally remains the only author to win the Miles Franklin Literary Award in two consecutive years. 

As a writer of both fiction and nonfiction, a playwright, essayist, and journalist, Keneally’s achievement is immense. His first novel, The Place at Whitton (1964) is a crime thriller novel inspired by Keneally’s time in the ministry. In 1965 he published his second novel, The Fear, a wartime story set in Sydney. In 1967 Keneally earned his first Miles Franklin Literary Award for the historical fiction Bring Larks and Heroes. This was followed by Three Cheers for the Paraclete in 1968 which won both the Miles Franklin Literary Award and the C. Weichhardt Award for Australian Literature. 

In 1972 the historical fiction The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith was published. The novel won the 1973 Royal Society of Literature Prize and was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize. This was adapted into a film by Fred Schiepsi in 1978 and nominated for the Australian Film Institute Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. 

Schindler's Ark (1982) is considered Keneally’s most notable work. Based on a true incident, Schindler’s Ark is the story of German industrialist Oscar Schindler who saved over one thousand Jews from the Nazis in the Second World War. Schindler’s Ark earned the Man Booker Prize for 1982, bringing Keneally new levels of international and national success. In 1993 it was adapted by Steven Spielberg into Schindler's List, a film that would go on to earn an Academy Award for Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Another Medium and a Golden Globe Award for Best Screenplay in 1994. 

In 2022 Keneally was awarded the ARA Historical Novel Prize for Corporal Hitler’s Pistol (2021). Keneally chose to give the $50,000 prize to the authors on the longlist because "writing — for young and old — is often a matter of combining pittances to make a living."

For more information see Thomas Keneally (1991) by Peter Quartermaine and Thomas Keneally : A Celebration (2006) by Peter Pierce.