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Garry Disher Garry Disher i(A27640 works by) (a.k.a. Garry Donald Disher)
Born: Established: 1949 Burra, Burra - Eudunda area, Mid North South Australia, South Australia, ;
Gender: Male
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BiographyHistory

Garry Disher was born in rural South Australia and attended local schools before completing his high school education at Adelaide Boys High. In 1971 he graduated with a BA from Adelaide University. During the next two years he travelled extensively, living and working in Britain, Europe, Israel and Africa. After his return to Australia he completed an MA in Australian History and began a career as a teacher.

By the late 1970s Disher had published several short stories in literary magazines. He was awarded a creative writing fellowship at Stanford University, California, in 1978, and completed his first collection of stories there. During the 1980s Disher taught creative writing and helped design the professional writing course for the Victorian TAFE system. He began writing full-time in 1988.

Disher is a versatile writer, serving a number of audiences. His publications include novels, short story collections, history textbooks, writers' handbooks and crime thrillers. Disher's reputation was first established with fiction for young adults. He has won several prizes in that genre, including the Children's Book Council Award for The Bamboo Flute (1992). His novels for adults have also attracted attention, most notably The Sunken Road (1996) which was shortlisted for several awards. Most recently, Disher has won several international awards for his crime fiction. His Wyatt series is widely considered one of the best series of crime fiction from an Australian writer.

In 2018, Disher received a lifetime achievement award from the Ned Kelly Awards, in recognition of his significance as a crime writer.

Most Referenced Works

Awards for Works

y separately published work icon Day's End Melbourne : Text Publishing , 2022 24962041 2022 single work novel crime

'Hirsch’s rural beat is wide. Daybreak to day’s end, dirt roads and dust. Every problem that besets small towns and isolated properties, from unlicensed driving to arson. In the time of the virus, Hirsch is seeing stresses heightened and social divisions cracking wide open. His own tolerance under strain; people getting close to the edge.

'Today he’s driving an international visitor around: Janne Van Sant, whose backpacker son went missing while the borders were closed. They’re checking out his last photo site, his last employer. A feeling that the stories don’t quite add up.

'Then a call comes in: a roadside fire. Nothing much—a suitcase soaked in diesel and set alight—but two noteworthy facts emerge. Janne knows more than Hirsch about forensic evidence. And the body in the suitcase is not her son’s.' (Publication summary)

2024 longlisted International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award
2023 shortlisted Australian Book Industry Awards (ABIA) Australian General Fiction Book of the Year
y separately published work icon The Way It Is Now Melbourne : Text Publishing , 2021 22129190 2021 single work novel crime

'A stunning new standalone crime novel from one of Australia's most revered writers

'Set in a beach-shack town an hour from Melbourne, The Way It Is Now tells the story of a burnt-out cop named Charlie Deravin.

'Charlie is living in his family's holiday house, on forced leave since he made a mess of things at work.

'Things have never been easy for Charlie. Twenty years earlier his mother went missing in the area, believed murdered. His father has always been the main suspect, though her body was never found.

'Until now- the foundations are being dug for a new house on a vacant block. The skeletal remains of a child and an adult are found-and Charlie's past comes crashing in on him.

'The Way It Is Now is the enthralling new novel by Garry Disher, one of Australia's most loved and celebrated crime writers.'(Publication summary)

2022 longlisted Colin Roderick Award
2022 shortlisted Booksellers Choice Award BookPeople Book of the Year Adult Fiction Book of the Year
2022 longlisted Australian Book Industry Awards (ABIA) Australian General Fiction Book of the Year
y separately published work icon Consolation Melbourne : Text Publishing , 2020 19549694 2020 single work novel crime

'Winter in Tiverton.

'Constable Paul Hirschhausen has a snowdropper on his patch. Someone is stealing women’s underwear, and Hirsch knows enough about that kind of crime—how it can escalate—not to take it lightly.

'But the more immediate concern is a high school teacher worried about one of the students.

'A little girl in danger. A family on the edge. An absent father who isn’t where he’s supposed to be.

'The cold, seeping feeling something is very, very wrong.' (Publication summary)

2021 winner Ned Kelly Awards for Crime Writing Best Novel
2021 shortlisted Colin Roderick Award
Last amended 27 Aug 2018 07:43:46
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