Lily Brett

Lily Brett (born 5 September 1946) is a German-born Australian novelist, essayist and poet who now lives in New York City.

Biography

During World War II, Brett's parents Max and Rose survived six years in the Łódź ghettos in Poland, before being taken to Auschwitz concentration camp where they were eventually separated. It took them six months to find each other again after the war ended in 1945. Brett was born in a displaced persons' camp in Germany in 1946. She was aged two (1948) before her parents were able to leave Germany and emigrate to Melbourne, Australia. Brett grew up in North Carlton.

By the mid-1960s, Brett was a young journalist working with Molly Meldrum at Go-Set, Australia's most renowned music magazine of the time, and on Uptight one of the first weekly TV shows devoted to pop music. In the summer of 1967 she traveled to America to cover the Monterey International Pop Festival, then onto the United Kingdom, before returning to Australia.

In 1989 Brett moved from Melbourne to New York City with her husband, Australian painter David Rankin.

Brett has published ten volumes of poetry, four collections of essays, and seven novels. Brett has also contributed writings to a wide range of publications. Lola Bensky, Brett's most recent work of fiction, has been shortlisted for The Miles Franklin Literary Award, and won the 2014 Prix Medicis étranger (France).

Fiction

• Things Could Be Worse (1990)
• What God Wants (1992)
• Just Like That (1994)
• Collected Stories (1999)
• Too Many Men (2001)
• You Gotta Have Balls (2005)
• Lola Bensky (2013)

Non-fiction

• In Full View (1997) Macmillan Australia ISBN 978-0-7329-0895-9
• New York (2001) Picador Australia ISBN 978-0-330-36245-0
• Between Mexico and Poland (2002) Picador Australia ISBN 978-0-330-36386-0
• Only in New York (2014)

Poetry

• The Auschwitz Poems (1986) Scribe ISBN 978-0-908011-10-0
• Poland and other Poems (1987)
• After the War (1990)
• Unintended Consequences (1992)
• In Her Strapless Dresses(1994) Picador Australia ISBN 978-0-330-35589-6
• Mud in My Tears (1997) Picador Australia ISBN 978-0-330-36011-1
• Poems by Lily Brett (2001) Picador Australia ISBN 978-0-330-36291-7
• Blistered Days (2007) Picador Australia ISBN 978-0-330-42287-1
• Liebesgedichte (Love Poems) (2008)
• Wenn Wir Bleiben Könnten (If We Could Stay) (2014)

Awards and nominations

• 1986 - Mattara Poetry Prize - "Poland"
• 1987 - Victorian Premier's Literary Awards: C. J. Dennis Prize for Poetry - The Auschwitz Poems
• 1987 - Commonwealth Writers' Prize in 2000 for the Best Book from the South-East Asia and South Pacific Region- Too Many Men
• 1992 - National Steel Award for What God Wants
• 1995 - New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards,Christina Steadman Prize for Fiction for Just Like That
• 2000 - Too Many Men shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Award
• 2013 - Lola Bensky shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Award
• 2014 - Lola Bensky Prix Medicis étranger (France)

External links

Lily Brett's official website: [1]

• Shannon Dowling 'Traces of Trauma: Loss and Longing in Too Many Men' JASAL 6 (2007)

Miles Franklin Literary Award: [2]