Cory Taylor Cory Taylor i(A72043 works by)
Born: Established: 1955 Southport, Southport area, Gold Coast, Queensland, ; Died: Ceased: 5 Jul 2016
Gender: Female
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BiographyHistory

Cory Taylor studied history at the Australian National University and then became a freelance writer for film and television. Among her script work was the telemovie Alterations (1988), two interlinked stories of friendship and infidelity.

Her first books, the Rat Tales, were inspired by the experiences of her two sons, and she followed this with another series of children's books: the Bandaged Bear series.

Her first novel, Me and Mr Booker (2011), won the Commonwealth Book Prize (Pacific Region). Her follow-up novel, My Beautiful Enemy (2013), was shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Award.

Taylor's final work, Dying: A Memoir, was an examination of her terminal cancer diagnosis.

Taylor died in July 2016.

Most Referenced Works

Awards for Works

y separately published work icon Dying : A Memoir Melbourne : Text Publishing , 2016 9509534 2016 single work autobiography

'A moving and heartfelt meditation on life and death, from a celebrated Australian author.

'Cory Taylor's debut novel, Me and Mr Booker, won the Commonwealth Writers Prize and her second, My Beautiful Enemy, was shortlisted for the 2014 Miles Franklin Award. Her latest and final work is in response to her being diagnosed with terminal cancer.

'Controversy and debate surrounding assisted dying continues to escalate, and at the most difficult time in her life Cory has chosen to her add her voice.

'Dying: A Memoir, while beautifully written, doesn't pull any punches when it comes to examining our personal rights in death. Cory begins the book by explaining that she has bought life-ending drugs online from China—she doesn't blanch from the issues around assisted dying.

'Cory's extraordinary and provocative book details her intense love for her family, her joys and regrets, her rage at a life cut short and her personal views on how to have a 'good death'.

'Throughout the book, Cory's wit, compassion and sparkling intelligence shine through, making this one of the great reading experiences of the year.' (Publication summary)

2017 longlisted Australian Book Industry Awards (ABIA) Australian General Non-Fiction Book of the Year
2017 shortlisted The Stella Prize
2016 shortlisted Queensland Literary Awards The Courier-Mail People's Choice Queensland Book of the Year
y separately published work icon My Beautiful Enemy Melbourne : Text Publishing , 2013 Z1926181 2013 single work novel

'"I was blinded by his beauty. In the one or two photographs I've kept of him I can still see it. He stares out of them almost miserably, as if his loveliness is an affliction. Not that I saw it that way, at least not in the beginning. In the beginning I thought it was a kind of miracle."

'Arthur Wheeler is haunted by his infatuation with a Japanese youth he encountered in the enemy alien camp where he worked as a guard during WW2. Abandoning his wife and baby son, Arthur sets out on a doomed mission to rescue his lover from forced deportation back to Japan, a country in ruins.

'Thus begins the secret history of a soldier at war with his own sexuality and dangerously at odds with the racism that underpins the crumbling British Empire.

'Four decades later Arthur is still obsessed with the traumatic events of his youth. He proposes a last reunion with his lost lover, in the hope of laying his ghosts to rest, but this mission too seems doomed to failure.

'Like Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence and Snow Falling On Cedars, My Beautiful Enemy explores questions of desire and redemption against the background of a savage racial war. In this context, Arthur's private battles against his own nature, and against the conventions of his time, can only end in heartache.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

2014 shortlisted Miles Franklin Literary Award
Monkey Business i "-Don't look them in the eye, she said. The find it confronting. With your", 2011 single work poetry
— Appears in: Griffith Review , [Autumn] no. 31 2011; (p. 229)
2011 Shortlisted Bridport Prize
Last amended 6 Jul 2016 09:37:24
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