Phil Brown Phil Brown i(A17026 works by) (a.k.a. Phill Brown; Phillip Brown)
Born: Established: 1956 Maitland, Maitland area, Hunter Valley, Newcastle - Hunter Valley area, New South Wales, ;
Gender: Male
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BiographyHistory

At the age of five, Phil Brown moved to Hong Kong where his family was engaged in the construction business. In Hong Kong, he attended Kowloon Junior School and King George V School where he regularly took part in poetry and prose recitations at the annual Hong Kong Schools Music Festival. With his family, Brown returned to Queensland's Gold Coast in 1970 and completed his secondary schooling at Miami State High School, where he developed a love of surfing and in interest in writing. That interest was further explored at the University of Southern Queensland in Toowoomba, where he majored in journalism and studied literature with the man who was to become his literary mentor, the poet Bruce Dawe.

Brown wrote journalism, poetry and short fiction for campus publications. Later, he worked at Radio 4GG on the Gold Coast as an advertising copywriter before moving to central Queensland to start a career in journalism - first as a cadet on The Burnett Herald in Monto in 1979 and later as a graded journalist at The Morning Bulletin in Rockhampton for two years where he became arts and literary editor and wrote regular short stories for the group's community newspapers. He has performed at Warana Writers Week, Brisbane Festival, Metro Arts, Somerset Celebration of Literature, Wordpool, Queensland Irish Association, Hawthorn Readings (Melb.), La Mama (Melb.) and his poetry has featured on Radio National's Poetica program.

As a journalist, he has worked in Central Queensland, on the Gold Coast, in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. In 2004, he was senior writer for Brisbane News, where he writes on the arts, entertainment and travel. In 2018, he was Senior Writer, Lifestyle for News Queensland.

He has served on the management committee of the Brisbane Writers Festival (including as chairman from 2005 to 2008), and has been a judge in the poetry prize at the Somerset Celebration of Literature and the Queensland Premier's Literary Awards fiction prize.

Most Referenced Works

Awards for Works

y separately published work icon The Kowloon Kid : A Hong Kong Childhood Yarraville : Transit Lounge , 2019 16790831 2019 single work autobiography

'From the author of Travels with My Angst and Any Guru Will Do, a vivid, nostalgic, and funny memoir of growing up in Hong Kong in the 1960s.

'Phil Brown's life begins in small town Australia — Maitland, NSW to be precise — but in 1963 his father Ted hankers to return to the Hong Kong of his childhood and to cash in on a construction boom in the burgeoning colony.

'Then under British rule, the world of Hong Kong is a truly fascinating place for gweilos or foreigners, both a colonial outpost and a region redolent with all the exoticism and contradictions of the Far East. The Brown’s home, in the garden suburb of Kowloon Tong, buzzes with characters: the family's amah, Ah Moy, frequent visitors such as the inscrutable Mr Lai, the spy-like Tony Parr, and family members such as Uncle Cyril. Not to mention the kid from across the road, Michael Hutchence.

'Combining recent visits to Hong Kong, where the author explores his childhood touchstones of the Kowloon Cricket Club, the beach at Shek O, the Peninsula Hong Kong and the bustling lanes of Kowloon, with an affectionate yet truly honest portrait of family, self and the 1960s The Kowloon Kid is an intimate and tender gem.'   (Publication summary)

2020 finalist Queensland Literary Awards The Courier-Mail People's Choice Queensland Book of the Year
y separately published work icon Travels with My Angst St Lucia : University of Queensland Press , 2004 Z1143873 2004 single work prose travel 'Journalist-about-town Phil Brown has travelled widely but always reluctantly. Whether pursuing a tailor-made suit in the back alleys of Hong Kong, souvenir hunting in Ubud or dodging potholes on the road to Kathmandu, he shoulders a veritable kitbag of travel phobias. With his more adventurous wife Sandra, Phil worries his way around the world, seeking the comfort of cable TV and 24-hour room service. Against his better judgment, he tackles the rainswept peaks of Scotland, the icy alienation of the Rockies and even the high Himalayas.' http://www.uqp.uq.edu.au/book_details.php?id=0702233579 (Sighted 27/10/04)
2005 shortlisted Queensland Premier's Literary Awards Arts Queensland Steele Rudd Australian Short Story Award This award was known as the Steele Rudd Australian Short Story Award from 1988-2007.
Last amended 24 Aug 2018 11:26:31
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