Emily Ballou is an Australian-American poet, novelist and screenwriter. Her first poetry collection The Darwin Poems, a verse portrait of Charles Darwin

Charles Darwin

Charles Robert Darwin FRS was an English naturalist. He established that all species of life have descended over time from common ancestry, and proposed the scientific theory that this branching pattern of evolution resulted from a process that he called natural selection.He published his theory...

, was published by University of Western Australia Press

University of Western Australia Press

UWA Publishing, formerly known as the University of Western Australia Press, is a Western Australian publisher established in 1935. It produces a range of non-fiction and fiction titles, introducing cookbooks into its list in 2008.-History:...

 in 2009. It was written as part of an Australia Council for the Arts residency at the Tyrone Guthrie Centre

Tyrone Guthrie Centre

The is a centre for creative artists at Annaghmakerrig, Newbliss, County Monaghan, Ireland, founded in 1981.The house was the family home of Tyrone Guthrie, and it was his will that it be used as a retreat...

 in County Monaghan

County Monaghan

County Monaghan is a county in Ireland. It is part of the Border Region and is also located in the province of Ulster. It is named after the town of Monaghan. Monaghan County Council is the local authority for the county...

, Ireland.

She is also the author of the novels Father Lands (Picador

Picador

A picador is one of the pair of horsemen in a Spanish bullfight that jab the bull with a lance. They perform in the tercio de varas which is the first of the three stages in a Spanish bullfight.The picador has three main functions:...

, 2002), Aphelion (Picador, 2007) and the picture book One Blue Sock (with illustrations by Stephen Michael King) (Random House

Random House

Random House, Inc. is the largest general-interest trade book publisher in the world. It has been owned since 1998 by the German private media corporation Bertelsmann and has become the umbrella brand for Bertelsmann book publishing. Random House also has a movie production arm, Random House Films,...

, 2007).

Background

Emily Ballou was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1968. She immigrated to Australia in 1991. She studied Fine Arts and English at University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, graduating with a Bachelor in Fine Arts with Honours in 1992 and completed a Master of Letters in Gender and Cultural Studies at the University of Sydney

University of Sydney

The University of Sydney is a public university located in Sydney, New South Wales. The main campus spreads across the suburbs of Camperdown and Darlington on the southwestern outskirts of the Sydney CBD. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and Oceania...

 in 1995.

Awards and nominations

2010 – New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards

New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards

The New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards were established in 1979 by the New South Wales Premier Neville Wran. Commenting on its purpose, Wran said: "We want the arts to take, and be seen to take, their proper place in our social priorities...

: Shortlisted for The Darwin Poems

2010 – Western Australian Premier's Book Awards

Western Australian Premier's Book Awards

The Western Australian Premier's Book Awards is an award for books, scripts, digital narrative and a People's Choice. Awards are provided by the Government of Western Australia, and the awards process is managed by the State Library of Western Australia...

: Shortlisted for The Darwin Poems

2010 – Fellowship of Australian Writers

Fellowship of Australian Writers

The Fellowship of Australian Writers, also known as FAW, was established in Sydney in 1928. Its aim is to bring writers together and promote their interests...

 Anne Elder Award

Anne Elder Award

The Anne Elder Trust Fund Award for poetry is administered by the Victorian branch of the Fellowship of Australian Writers and is awarded annually, as the Anne Elder Award, for the best first book of poetry published in Australia. It was established in 1976 and currently has a prize of A$1000 for...

: Highly Commended for The Darwin Poems

2010 – Australian Literature Society Gold Medal: Shortlisted for The Darwin Poems

2010 – Mary Gilmore Prize

Mary Gilmore Prize

The Mary Gilmore Prize for the best first book of poetry is given to a first book of poetry from the previous two years; prior to 1998 it was awarded annually...

: Shortlisted for The Darwin Poems

2009 – Wesley Michel Wright Poetry Prize for The Darwin Poems

2003 – Sydney Morning Herald Best Young Novelist for Father Lands

1997 – The Ibis Foundation's Judith Wright Prize

Judith Wright Prize

The Judith Wright Prize is awarded annually as part of the Arts ACT Poetry Prize for a book of poems published the previous year in book form by an Australian author.The prize currently comes with a $10,000 cash award.-2009:...

for Poetry for the poem "Enter"

Anthologies

2010 – "The Beach",The Penguin Book of the Ocean

2010 – "Darwin as Metaphor", Journal 19: Interdisciplinary Studies in the Long Nineteenth Century, Birkbeck: University of London, No. 11, pp. 1–17.

2009 – "Here is a Hair From Her Head", Best Australian Short Stories

2008 – "On the Splice", Best Australian Short Stories

External links

• Emily Ballou interviewed for the Darwin Correspondence Project
• Emily Ballou "Darwin as Metaphor", Journal 19
• Emily Ballou interviewed by Sarah L'Estrange on ABC radio's The Book Show, Dec 9th, 2009
• Emily Ballou interviewed by Mark Metcalf, Aug 19th, 2010
• "Darwin's Noah" on YouTube
• Emily Ballou reads "The Kite", The Red Room Company
• Emily Ballou interviewed by Magdalena Ball for The Compulsive Reader
• Emily Ballou interviews Hanif Kureshi for The Australian Magazine, Nov 15th, 2008
• Emily Ballou "Twenty Questions for the Nation", New Matilda, May 1, 2008