Cirrus@Austlit

Bruce L. Russell grew up in the Illawarra region of New South Wales. His working life has mostly been in adult education with periods on fishing boats, fruit trucks and taxi driving . He relocated to Perth in 1990 where he wrote and acted in the Playback Theatre. Russell began writing in mid-life and his first works, short stories, attracted considerable success - 'The Fall of Icarus ' was runner-up in the 1975 Canberra Times National Short Story competition, and 'Dire Straits Rules' was selected for Frank Moorhouse's (q.v.) Fictions 88. Following his relocation to Perth, he placed stories in Westerly and the Western Review before publishing the semi-autobiographical Jacob's Air, which won the 1995 TAG Hungerford Award.

For the next three years, Russell researched the origins of psychodrama for what was to become The Chelsea Manifesto. After a residency at Varuna Writers Centre, he travelled to the United States where he interviewed Zerka Moreno, widow of Jacob Moreno, founder of this group therapy movement. In New York, he 'fell in love with the Chelsea Hotel, a setting which would have continuing echoes in his work and life'. During his time in New York Russell developed an interest in Henry Miller (q.v.), the subject of his third novel Channelling Henry, 'a crime novel, in which the audacious idea that a living writer might channel a dead one is played out in a setting of deceit and thuggery'.

Russell has taught creative writing at the University of Queensland and has been a member of the management committee of the Australian Society of Authors and a board member of the State Literature Centre of Western Australia.. (Adapted from the Bruce L. Russell website ).