A talk by RODNEY HALL

Wednesday 13 April 2011

La Trobe University Franklin St Campus

This talk focused on largely personal experiences of being translated, with some general points, from the literary viewpoint, of rival translations of great books.

Rodney Hall has had 37 books published. These include fiction, non-fiction, poetry and stage works. His work is published in the USA, UK, Australia and Canada and in translation into German, French, Danish, Swedish, Spanish, Portuguese and Korean. His many radio and TV scripts have been broadcast by the ABC and the BBC.

He has twice won the Miles Franklin Award (for Just Relations in 1982 and The Grisly Wife in 1994) and been three times nominated for the Booker Prize in the UK. He won the Canada-Australia Award in 1988 and the Victorian Premier’s prize for Captivity Captive in 1989. He was poetry editor of The Australian from 1967-1978. He was presented with the gold medal of the Australian Literature Society in 1992 and again in 2001.

The New York Times praised him as “A thrillingly smart and juicy writer.” The Saturday Review (USA) said “He immediately establishes his place among the best writers of his time.”

In 1990 he was awarded membership of the Order of Australia. In 1991 he was appointed for a three-year term as Chairman of the Australia Council. In 2003 he was awarded the Centenary Medal. His latest publication is a memoir Popeye never told you (Pier 9, 2010).