Brian Castro honoured for outstanding contribution to Australian literature
Perpetual, as trustee, has announced Brian Castro, acclaimed novelist and essayist, as the 2014 winner of the Patrick White Literary Award.
Benefitting from the proceeds of the Trust of Patrick White’s 1973 Nobel Prize for Literature, Mr Castro will receive $24,000 in recognition of his outstanding contribution to Australian literature.
The Patrick White Literary Award was established by Mr White to advance Australian literature ‘by encouraging the writing of novels, short stories, poetry and/or plays for publication or performance’. For the past 41 years it has been bestowed to an author who has made an ongoing contribution to Australian literature, but may not have received due recognition.
Andrew Thomas, General Manager of Philanthropy at Perpetual, congratulated Mr Castro on his achievement.
“Brian Castro must be commended for his original and prolific contribution to Australian literary culture,” Mr Thomas said.
“His exciting and diverse body of work includes 10 novels, two radio plays, two stage plays, five short stories and a collection of essays on writing and culture.
“Patrick White continues to support our literary community by using the proceeds of his Nobel Prize and is renowned as the first and only Australian who received this honour for literature. As trustee, Perpetual is proud to continue Mr White’s great legacy and the tradition of philanthropic support for the arts through this award.”
Brian Castro was born in Hong Kong in 1950 to parents of Portuguese, Chinese and English descent and was sent to boarding school in Australia at the age of 10. His early childhood experience of the fluidity and range of language has significantly influenced his writing. Throughout his writing career, Mr Castro has explored questions of identity, race, lineage and hybridity using a distinctive provocative and playful style. Mr Castro is recognised as sharing similar qualities in his writing to Patrick White and in 2007 he published an essay, Twice Born, in which he paid homage to the Nobel Prize winner.
Reflecting on the unique quality of the Award and Patrick White as author and benefactor, Mr Castro said: “As others have noted, this is an award by a writer for other writers. I cannot think of another Nobel winner who left this kind of legacy. It is not a prize for which you can apply, as it acknowledges a body of work rather than a single publication. It takes in the larger view, and is not about long-lists, short-lists, betting-lists and gossip-lists. I am proud to be amongst such great company as past winners Christina Stead, Randolph Stow and Thea Astley.”
Describing the many merits of Mr Castro’s body of work, the 2014 judging panel said: “His continued willingness to take imaginative risks and be ‘blackly playful’, and his evident potential to produce more significant work make him an excellent recipient of this most prestigious award.”
The 2014 judging panel members included Professor David Carter, Associate Professor Debra Adelaide, and Dr Bernadette Brennan.
