Tim Winton facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Tim Winton
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Winton at the launch of Breath in London, 2008
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| Born | Timothy John Winton 4 August 1960 (age 64) Subiaco, Western Australia, Australia |
| Occupation | Novelist |
| Nationality | Australian |
| Period | 1982–present |
| Genre | Literature, children's, non-fiction, short story |
| Notable works | Cloudstreet Dirt Music Breath Shallows BlueBack The Bugalugs Bum Thief |
| Notable awards | Miles Franklin 1984, 1992, 2002, 2009 |
Timothy John Winton AO (born 4 August 1960) is an Australian writer. He has written novels, children's books, non-fiction books, and short stories. In 1997, he was named a Living Treasure by the National Trust of Australia, and has won the Miles Franklin Award four times.
Contents
Life and career
Timothy John Winton was born on 4 August 1960 in Subiaco, an inner western suburb of Perth, Western Australia. He grew up in the northern Perth suburb of Karrinyup, before he moved with his family to the regional city of Albany at the age of 12.
Whilst at the Western Australian Institute of Technology, Winton wrote his first novel, An Open Swimmer, which won The Australian/Vogel Literary Award in 1981, launching his writing career. He has stated that he wrote "the best part of three books while at university". His second book, Shallows, won the Miles Franklin Award in 1984. Winton published Cloudstreet in 1991, which properly established his writing career. He has continued to publish fiction, plays and non-fiction material.
Personal life
Winton has lived in Italy, France, Ireland and Greece, but currently lives in Western Australia. He met his wife Denise when they were children at school. When he was 18 and recovering from a car accident, they reconnected as she was a student nurse. They married when Winton was 21 and she was 20, and had three children together. They live in Fremantle, south of Perth.
Winton's younger brother, Andrew Winton, is a musician and a high school chaplain. His younger sister is Sharyn O'Neill, who in 2018 became the Public Sector Commissioner of Western Australia, after 12 years as Director General of the WA Education Department.
As his fame has grown, Winton has guarded his and his family's privacy. He rarely speaks in public yet he is known as "an affable, plain-speaking man of unaffected intelligence and deep emotions."
Style and themes
Winton draws his prime inspiration from landscape and place, mostly coastal Western Australia. He has said "The place comes first. If the place isn't interesting to me then I can't feel it. I can't feel any people in it. I can't feel what the people are on about or likely to get up to."
Dr Jules Smith for the British Council wrote about Winton,
"His books are boisterous and lyrical by turns, warm-hearted in their depictions of family life but with characters that often have to be in extremis in order to find themselves. They have a wonderful feeling for the strange beauty of Australia; are frequently flavoured with Aussie vernacular expressions, and a good deal of emotional directness. They question macho role models (his books are full of strong women and troubled men) and are prepared to risk their realist credibility with enigmatic, even visionary endings."
Winton revisits place and, occasionally, characters from one book to another. Queenie Cookson, for example, is a character in Breath who also appears in Shallows, Minimum of Two and in two of the Lockie Leonard books.
Environmental advocacy
Winton is actively involved in the Australian environmental movement. He is a patron of the Australian Marine Conservation Society (AMCS) and is involved in many of their campaigns, notably their work in raising awareness about sustainable seafood consumption. He is a patron of the Stop the Toad Foundation and contributed to the whaling debate with an article on the Last Whale website. He is also a prominent advocate of the Save Moreton Bay organisation, the Environment Defender's Office, the Australian Wildlife Conservancy and the Marine Conservation Society, with which he is campaigning against shark finning.
In 2003, Winton was awarded the inaugural Australian Society of Authors (ASA) Medal in recognition for his work in the campaign to save the Ningaloo Reef.
Winton keeps away from the public eye, unless promoting a new book or supporting an environmental issue. He told reviewer Jason Steger "Occasionally they wheel me out for green advocacy stuff but that's the only kind of stuff I put my head up for."
In 2016, species of fish from the Kimberley region was named after him.
In March 2017, Winton was named patron of the newly established Native Australian Animals Trust. He has always featured the environment and the Australian landscape in his writings. The trust was established to help research and teaching about native animals and their environment. Associate Professor Tim Dempster, School of Biosciences is quoted as saying, "Australia has a unique and charismatic animal fauna, but our state of knowledge about it is poor. Indeed species can go extinct before we even know of their existence. We have much to learn from our fauna, and a pressing need to do so."
In 2023, a mini documentary series was released by the ABC called Ningaloo Nyinggulu, which he was the presenter for.
His 2024 novel Juice looks at the impact of climate change that has been called 'a potent vision of the future that points a finger at the complacency of the present' as it takes a look at the impact of climate change.
Awards and nominations
- Four time Miles Franklin Award winner, 1984, 1992, 2002, 2009
- Two time Booker Prize nominee 1995, 2002
- Winton was included in the Bulletin's "100 Most Influential Australians" list in 2006
- Australian National Living Treasure 1997
- Centenary Medal for service to literature and the community 2001
- Friends of the National Library of Australia Celebration Award 1999
- Australian Society of Authors Medal for Community work re 'Save Ningaloo Reef' campaign 2003
- ABIA Lloyd O'Neil Award 2023
Full list of awards and nominations
An Open Swimmer
- 1981 Australian Vogel National Literary Award
Shallows
- 1984 Miles Franklin Award,
- 1985 Joint Winner Western Australian Premier's Book Award – Fiction
Scission and Other Stories
- 1985 Western Australian Council Literary Award
- 1985 Joint Winner Western Australian Premier's Book Award – Fiction
Minimum of Two and Other Stories
- 1988 Winner Western Australian Premier's Book Award – Fiction
- 1990 Winner Western Australian Premier's Book Award: Children's Book
Cloudstreet
- 1991 NBC Banjo Award for Fiction
- 1991 Western Australian Premier's Book Award Fiction
- 1992 Deo Gloria Award
- 1992 Miles Franklin Award
Related to Cloudstreet
- 1999 AWGIE Award (for playwrights Nick Enright & Justin Monjo)
- 2002 Helpmann Award (Best Direction of a Play: Neil Armfield)
- 2002 Helpmann Award (Best Play)
Lockie Leonard, Human Torpedo
- 1991 Joint winner Western Australian Premier's Book Award: Children's Book
- 1993 American Library Association Best Book for Young Adults Award
- 1996 Winner YABBA Awards: Fiction for Older Readers
Lockie Leonard, Scumbuster
- 1993 Wilderness Society Environment Award
- 1994 Winner CROW Award (Children Reading Outstanding Writers): Focus list (Years 3-5)
- 1998 Winner YABBA Awards: Fiction for Younger Readers
The Riders
- 1995 Shortlisted Booker Prize
- 1995 Commonwealth Writers' Prize (South East Asia and South Pacific Region, Best Book)
Blueback
- 1998 Bolinda Audio Book Awards
- 1998 Wilderness Society Environment Award
- 1999 WAYRBA Hoffman Award for Young Readers
Lockie Leonard, Legend
- 1998 Family Award for Children's Literature,
Dirt Music
- 2001 Good Reading Award, 2001
- 2001 Western Australian Premier's Book Award Premier's Prize – Book of Year
- 2001 Western Australian Premier's Book Award Premier's Prize – Fiction
- 2002 Australian Booksellers Association Book of the Year Award
- 2002 Shortlisted Man Booker Prize
- 2002 Shortlisted Kiriyama Pacific Rim Book Prize, Fiction
- 2002 Miles Franklin Award
- 2002 New South Wales Premier's Literary Award, Christina Stead Prize for Fiction
The Turning
- 2004 Colin Roderick Award, 2004 – joint winner
- 2005 commended Commonwealth Writers Prize, South East Asia and South Pacific Region, Best Book
- 2005 shortlisted Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award
- 2005 New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards, Christina Stead Prize for Fiction
- 2005 Queensland Premier's Literary Awards, Best Fiction Book
Breath
- 2008 The Age Book of the Year, Fiction
- 2008 Indie Book Awards – Fiction
- 2009 Shortlisted Commonwealth Writers' Prize, South East Asia and the South Pacific Region
- 2009 Miles Franklin Award
- 2009 Shortlisted New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards, Christina Stead Prize
Eyrie
- 2014 shortlisted Australian Book Industry Awards (ABIA) – Australian Literary Fiction Book of the Year
- 2014 shortlisted Indie Book Awards – Fiction
- 2014 shortlisted Miles Franklin Award
- 2014 shortlisted Queensland Literary Awards – Fiction Book Award
- 2014 shortlisted Victorian Premier's Literary Awards – Fiction
- 2014 shortlisted Voss Literary Prize
- 2014 winner Western Australian Premier's Book Awards – People's Choice Award
- 2014 shortlisted Western Australian Premier's Book Awards – Fiction
Island Home: A Landscape Memoir
- 2015 highly commended The Fellowship of Australian Writers Victoria Inc. National Literary Awards – FAW Excellence in Non-fiction Award
- 2015 shortlisted Colin Roderick Award
- 2016 shortlisted New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards —Douglas Stewart Prize for Non-Fiction
- 2016 winner Australian Book Industry Awards (ABIA) – Australian General Non-Fiction Book of the Year
- 2016 shortlisted Prime Minister's Literary Awards – Non-Fiction
- 2016 shortlisted Queensland Literary Awards – Non-Fiction Book Award
The Boy Behind the Curtain
- 2017 longlisted Indie Book Awards – Nonfiction
The Shepherd's Hut
- 2019 shortlisted New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards, Christina Stead Prize for Fiction
- 2019 winner Voss Literary Prize
