Karen Brooks Karen Brooks i(A15021 works by) (a.k.a. Karen R. Brooks; Karen Ruth Brooks)
Gender: Female
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BiographyHistory

Karen Brooks has been an actress and playwright, has served in the Royal Australian Army Survey Corp and has taught drama. She has been a senior lecturer in Australian and Cultural Studies, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at the University of the Sunshine Coast, in the areas of youth culture, film, music, literature and cultural theory. Aside from her academic career she has also had a regular talkback session on Sunshine Coast Sea FM radio.

Her commentaries on youth subcultures and popular culture, such as body art, grunge, literature, films and music have been widely reported in the media. She is also a published creative writer of short stories and plays.

Most Referenced Works

Awards for Works

y separately published work icon The Good Wife of Bath : A (Mostly) True Tale Chatswood : HQ Fiction , 2021 20946526 2021 single work novel historical fiction

'In the middle ages, a poet told a story that mocked a strong woman. It became a literary classic. But what if the woman in question had a chance to tell her own version? Who would you believe?

'England, The Year of Our Lord, 1364

'When married off aged 12 to an elderly farmer, Eleanor Cornfed, who's constantly told to seek redemption for her many sins, quickly realises it won't matter what she says or does, God is not on her side - or any poor woman's for that matter.

'But Eleanor was born under the joint signs of Venus and Mars. Both a lover and a fighter, she will not bow meekly to fate. Even if five marriages, several pilgrimages, many lovers, violence, mayhem and wildly divergent fortunes (that swoop up and down as if spinning on Fortuna's Wheel itself) do not for a peaceful life make. 

'Aided and abetted by her trusty god-sibling Alyson, the counsel of one Geoffrey Chaucer, and a good head for business, Eleanor fights to protect those she loves from the vagaries of life, the character deficits of her many husbands, the brutalities of medieval England and her own fatal flaw... a lusty appreciation of mankind. All while continuing to pursue the one thing all women want - control of their own lives.

'This funny, picaresque, clever retelling of Chaucer's 'Wife of Bath' from The Canterbury Tales is a cutting assessment of what happens when male power is left to run unchecked, as well as a recasting of a literary classic that gives a maligned character her own voice, and allows her to tell her own (mostly) true story.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

2022 longlisted HNSA Historical Novel Prize Adult
2022 longlisted Indie Awards Fiction
Last amended 2 Nov 2009 11:34:51
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