Carmel Bird

Carmel Bird (née Janice Maureen Power, 1940), one of Tasmania's most published and best-known contemporary writers of fiction, non-fiction and multimedia. She was born in Launceston, educated at the University of Tasmania and currently lives in Victoria. Her creative writing frequently draws on Tasmanian history and landscape: Births, deaths and marriages (1983), Cherry ripe (1985), Bluebird Cafe (1990), The white garden (1995), The mouth (1996), Red shoes (1998) and Cape Grimm (2004).

As a literary editor, Carmel's work includes Dear writer (1988), Relations: Australian short stories (1991), Not now Jack – I'm writing a novel (1994), the electronic magazine Aurora Australis (www.australis.org) and other magazines. In 1991, she won the New South Wales Premier's Award for Bluebird Cafe and was short-listed for the Miles Franklin Award that year and in 1996.

Further reading: www.carmelbird.com; Who's who of Australian writers, Melbourne, 1995.