Kim Scott facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Kim Scott
FAHA
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| Born | 18 February 1957 Perth, Western Australia, Australia |
| Notable works | Benang: From the Heart; That Deadman Dance |
| Notable awards | Miles Franklin Award 2000 Benang Miles Franklin Award 2011 That Deadman Dance |
Kim Scott is an Australian author born on February 18, 1957. He is known for his amazing novels. Kim Scott is a descendant of the Noongar people, an Aboriginal group from Western Australia. He is also a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities (FAHA), which is a special honor for people who are experts in arts and humanities.
Contents
About Kim Scott
Early Life and Background
Kim Scott was born in Perth, Western Australia in 1957. He is the oldest of four children. His mother was white, and his father was Aboriginal.
His Journey as a Writer
Kim Scott has written five novels and one children's book. He has also had his poems and short stories published in different collections. He started writing after he became a high school English teacher. He taught in cities and rural areas in Australia, and even in Portugal.
He spent some time teaching in an Aboriginal community in northern Western Australia. While there, he began to research his own family's history. This research greatly influenced his writing.
Exploring Identity in His Books
His first novel, True Country, came out in 1993. It was later translated into French. His second novel, Benang, won several awards, including the Miles Franklin Award in 2000. This award is one of Australia's most important literary prizes.
Both True Country and Benang were inspired by his family research. They explore what it means to be a light-skinned Aboriginal person. They also look at how the government's policies in the early 1900s tried to make Aboriginal people fit into white society.
Kim Scott was the first Indigenous writer to win the Miles Franklin Award for Benang. This book has been translated into French and Dutch.
Collaborations and Later Works
In 2005, he wrote Kayang and Me with his aunt, Hazel Brown. She is a Noongar elder. This book tells the important history of his family and the Noongar people from the south coast of Western Australia. It is based on stories passed down through generations.
His 2010 novel, That Deadman Dance, explores the early 1800s. It shows the interesting relationships between the Noongar people, British colonists, and American whalers. In 2011, Kim Scott won the Miles Franklin Award again for That Deadman Dance. He also won the Victorian Premier's Prize for the same novel.
Teaching and Research
In December 2011, Kim Scott became a Professor of Writing at Curtin University. He is part of The Centre for Culture and Technology (CCAT). There, he leads a research program about Indigenous culture and digital technologies.
Kim Scott lives in Coolbellup, near Fremantle, Western Australia. He lives there with his wife and two children.
Awards and Recognition
Kim Scott has received many awards for his writing:
- 1999 – Western Australian Premier's Book Awards, Fiction Award for Benang: From the Heart
- 2000 – (joint winner) Miles Franklin Literary Award for Benang: From the Heart
- 2001 – The Kate Challis RAKA Award for Creative Prose for Benang: From the Heart
- 2011 – Commonwealth Writers' Prize, Best Book south-east Asia and the Pacific, for That Deadman Dance
- 2011 – Miles Franklin Literary Award for That Deadman Dance
- 2011 – ALS Gold Medal for That Deadman Dance
- 2011 – Western Australian Premier's Book Awards, Fiction Award and Premier's Prize for That Deadman Dance
- 2012 – Honorary Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities
- 2018 – Queensland Literary Awards, University of Queensland Fiction Book Award for Taboo
- 2019 – Victorian Premier's Literary Award for Indigenous Writing, for Taboo
- 2019 – Shortlisted for 2019 Adelaide Festival Awards for Literature, Fiction, for Taboo
- 2020 – Inducted into Western Australian Writers Hall of Fame
- 2023 – Inaugural Indigenous Studies Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities
- 2024 – Elected as Royal Society of Literature International Writer
