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Nancy Phelan Nancy Phelan i(A6964 works by) (birth name: Nancy Eleanor Creagh) (a.k.a. Nancy Eleanor Phelan; Nancy Creagh Phelan; N. Phelan; Nancy Eleanor Creagh)
Born: Established: 2 Aug 1913 Sydney, New South Wales, ; Died: Ceased: 11 Jan 2008
Gender: Female
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BiographyHistory

Nancy Phelan was educated at the University of Sydney and the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. She lived in England from 1938 to 1945, returning to Australia after World War II with her husband and daughter. For five years Phelan was a member of the South Pacific Commission, working and travelling in the Pacific Islands, experiences described in her book Pieces of Heaven. She travelled widely in Europe, the Middle East, Asia, South America, Japan and the USSR.

As well as the works listed on AustLit, Phelan wrote a number of travel books, including Morocco is a Lion (1982). She also wrote, either in collaboration with Michael Volin or on her own, a series of yoga guides (from Yoga for Women in 1963 to Yoga and Sex in 1977, with many titles reprinted in later years), as well as craft books including Coral as a Building Material (1952), How to Make Your Own Filmstrips (1954) and How to Make Your Own Posters (1957). In collaboration with Nina Nicolaieff she produced a series of Russian cookbooks between 1969 and 1981. Phelan published a biography of her cousin, the musician and conductor Charles Mackerras, in 1987.

Phelan befriended a number of well known artists and writers, among them Dorothy Hewett, Patrick White and Kylie Tennant (qq.v.). Three of Phelan's aunts, Louise Mack, Amy Mack and Gertrude Mack (qq.v.), were also Australian writers.

For further details about her life see her autobiography Writing Round the Edges (2003).

Most Referenced Works

Personal Awards

Awards for Works

y separately published work icon The Romantic Lives of Louise Mack St Lucia : University of Queensland Press , 1991 Z204154 1991 single work biography
1991 shortlisted Victorian Premier's Literary Awards Award for Non-Fiction
1991 shortlisted NBC Banjo Awards NBC Banjo Award for Non-Fiction
y separately published work icon Home Is the Sailor, and, The Best of Intentions Melbourne : Hyland House , 1987 Z391996 1987 selected work novel
1987 winner Townsville Foundation for Australian Literary Studies Award
1987 shortlisted Miles Franklin Literary Award
1987 shortlisted The Age Book of the Year Award Imaginative Writing Prize
Home is the Sailor 1987 single work novel
— Appears in: Home Is the Sailor, and, The Best of Intentions 1987; (p. 1-172)
1987 shortlisted Miles Franklin Literary Award

Known archival holdings

Albinski 180
University of New South Wales Australian Defence Force Academy Australian Defence Force Academy Library (ACT)
Last amended 27 Feb 2023 06:19:09
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