Louis Nowra

Louis Nowra (born 12 December 1950) is an Australian writer, playwright, screenwriter and librettist.

He is best known as one of Australia's leading playwrights. His works have been performed by all of Australia's major theatre companies, including Sydney Theatre Company, Melbourne Theatre Company, Queensland Theatre Company, State Theatre Company of South Australia, Belvoir, and many others, and have also had many international productions. His most significant plays are Così, Byzantine Flowers, Summer of the Aliens, Radiance, and The Golden Age. In 2006 he completed The Boyce Trilogy for Griffin Theatre Company, consisting of The Woman with Dog's Eyes, The Marvellous Boy and The Emperor of Sydney. A number of his plays have been turned into films.

His 2009 novel Ice was shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Award.

He has written two memoirs, The Twelfth of Never (1999) and Shooting the Moon (2004).

In March 2007, Nowra published a controversial book on violence in Aboriginal communities, Bad Dreaming. He was also one of the principal writers for the landmark, multi award-winning 2008 SBS TV series, First Australians.

Nowra is also a significant cultural commentator, with essays and commentary appearing regularly in The Monthly and the Australian Literary Review as well as major newspapers.

Biography

Nowra was born Mark Doyle in Melbourne. He changed his name to Louis Nowra in the early 1970s. He studied at Melbourne's La Trobe University without earning a degree. In his memoir, The Twelfth of Never, Nowra claimed that he left the course due to a conflict with his professor over Patrick White's The Tree of Man. He worked in several jobs and lived an itinerant lifestyle until the mid-1970s, when his plays began to attract attention.

His radio plays include Albert Names Edward, The Song Room, The Widows and the five part The Divine Hammer aired on the ABC in 2003.

Nowra has been studied extensively in Veronica Kelly's work The Theatre of Louis Nowra. He resides in Sydney with his wife, author Mandy Sayer.

Awards

• 1990 – Prix Italia award, for the radio play Summer of the Aliens
• 1992 – Winner of the NSW Premier's Literary Prize for the play Cosi
• 1994 – Winner of Victoria Premier's, Louis Esson Prize for Drama for The Temple
• 1994 – Australian Literary Society Gold Medal for Radiance and The Temple
• 1994 – The Australia/Canada Award
• 1995 – Green Room Award for Best New Play
• 1996 – Honorary Doctorate – Griffith University, 1996
• 1996 – Australian Film Institute Award – Best Adapted Screenplay for Cosi
• 1999 – Nominated for Green Room Award Best New Australian Play for Language of the Gods
• 2000 – Nominated for New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards for The Twelfth of Never
• 2000 – Courier-Mail Book of The Year for The Twelfth of Never
• 2009 – Shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Award for Ice.
• 2009 - First Australians: Logie Award: Outstanding Documentary or Documentary Series
• 2009 - First Australians: New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards Script Writing Award for Louis Nowra, Rachel Perkins & Beck Cole
• 2009 - First Australians: Australian Writers' Guild Award: Outstanding Writing in a Documentary (Episode 1) for Louis Nowra, Rachel Perkins

Works

Plays

• Kiss The One-Eyed Priest (1973)
• Death Of Joe Orton (1974)
• Inner Voices (Currency Press, 1977)
• The Lady Of The Camellias (1979)
• Visions (Currency Press, 1979)
• Beauty And The Beast (1980)
• Cyrano De Bergerac (1980)
• Inside The Island (Currency Press, 1981)
• The Precious Woman (Currency Press, 1981)
• Lulu (1981)
• The Prince Of Homburg (1982)
• Radiance
• Royal Show (1982)
• Spellbound (1982)
• Sunrise (Currency Press, 1983)
• Albert Names Edward (Currency Press, 1983)
• The Golden Age (Currency Press, 1985)

• Beatrice
• The Song Room (Editions Rodopi, 1987)
• Capricornia (Currency Press, 1988)
• Byzantine Flowers (1989)
• Summer of the Aliens (Currency Press, 1992)
• Così (Currency Press, 1992)
• Crow
• Incorruptible (Currency Press, 1995)
• Jungle (1995)
• Language of the Gods (Currency Press, 1999)
• Miss Bosnia
• The Temple
• Watchtower
• Devil Is A Woman (2004)
• The Woman with Dog's Eyes (2004)
• The Marvellous Boy (2005)
• The Emperor of Sydney (2006)
• Page 8 (2006)

Non-fiction writing

• The Cheated (Angus & Robertson, Australia, 1979)
• Warne's World (Duffy & Snellgrove, Australia, 2002)
• Bad Dreaming (Pluto Press, Australia 2007)

Novels

• The Misery of Beauty (Angus & Robertson, Australia, 1976)
• Palu (Picador, Australia, 1987)
• Red Nights (Picador, Australia, 1997)
• Abaza (Picador, Australia, 2001)
• Ice (Allen & Unwin, 2008)

Memoirs

• The Twelfth of Never (Picador, Australia, 1999) ISBN 978-0-330-36187-3
• Shooting the Moon (Picador, Australia, 2004) ISBN 978-0-330-36490-4

Screen writing

• Displaced Persons (1984)
• Hunger (1986)
• "The Last Resort" (TV Series. 1988)
• Map of the Human Heart (1992)
• Heaven's Burning (1997)
• Radiance (associate producer/writer, 1998)
• Twisted Tales Directly From My Heart to You (1996)
• The Matchmaker (screen play, 1997)
• Così (screen play, 1997)
• K-19: The Widowmaker (2002)
• Black and White (2002)
• Rain of the Children (additional dialogue, 2008)

Libretti

• Inner Voices Victorian State Opera, 1978
• Whitsunday Opera Australia, 1988
• Love Burns Seymour Group, 1992 Adelaide Festival of Arts
• On the Beach Victorian Arts Centre Rio Tinto Grant 2000

Essays

Nowra has also published a number of essays:

• "Nowhere Near Hollywood: Australian Film". http://www.themonthly.com.au/film-louis-nowra-nowhere-near-hollywood-preview-australian-film-2178. , The Monthly, December 2009 - January 2010, pp.44-52.
• "The Whirling Dervish: Tony Abott". http://www.themonthly.com.au/monthly-essays-louis-nowra-whirling-dervish-tony-abbott-2250. ,The Monthly, February 2010, pp.22-29
• "The Better Self?: Germaine Greer and the Female Eunuch". http://www.themonthly.com.au/monthly-essays-louis-nowra-better-self-germaine-greer-and-039the-female-eunuch039-2298. , The Monthly, March 2010, pp.40-46.

External links

• [1] Transcript of interview with Ramona Koval, The Book Show, ABC Radio National, on his novel "Ice", 27/11/08
• Short video interview with Louis Nowra talking about his plays and writing methods
• In an interview with Dr. Tess Brady, Louis Nowra shares some tips on how to write a play
• Teacher's Notes on Louis Nowra
• Louis Nowra Australian theatre credits at Ausstage