John Murray (Australian novelist)
Encyclopedia
John Murray is an Australian epidemologist
, and writer.
. He went on to the Centers for Disease Control's Epidemic Intelligence Service
. He investigated the outbreak of diseases such as cholera and dysentery.
In fall 1999, he moved with his wife and daughter, to Iowa, where he graduated from the Iowa Writers' Workshop
.
In 2003, he published a collection of short stories.
He returned to Australia, and is working on a novel.
Epidemiology
Epidemiology is the study of health-event, health-characteristic, or health-determinant patterns in a population. It is the cornerstone method of public health research, and helps inform policy decisions and evidence-based medicine by identifying risk factors for disease and targets for preventive...
, and writer.
Life
In 1985, Murray received his medical degree. He received a master's of public health from Johns Hopkins UniversityJohns Hopkins University
The Johns Hopkins University, commonly referred to as Johns Hopkins, JHU, or simply Hopkins, is a private research university based in Baltimore, Maryland, United States...
. He went on to the Centers for Disease Control's Epidemic Intelligence Service
Epidemic Intelligence Service
The Epidemic Intelligence Service is a program of the United States' Centers for Disease Control and Prevention . Established in 1951, due to biological warfare concerns arising from the Korean War, it has become a hands-on two-year postgraduate training program in epidemiology, with a focus on...
. He investigated the outbreak of diseases such as cholera and dysentery.
In fall 1999, he moved with his wife and daughter, to Iowa, where he graduated from the Iowa Writers' Workshop
Iowa Writers' Workshop
The Program in Creative Writing, more commonly known as the Iowa Writers' Workshop, at the University of Iowa in Iowa City, Iowa, is a highly regarded graduate-level creative writing program in the United States...
.
In 2003, he published a collection of short stories.
He returned to Australia, and is working on a novel.
Reviews
This remarkable collection of short stories is written by a medical doctor-turned-author. Murray offers dazzling insight into the minds and hearts of men and women whom we may have thought too cerebral to have "real" lives --- dedicated physicians and scientists --- all living private lives of great complexity.
The stories are accomplished and seasoned, remarkably so given that this is the author’s first book. Murray is adept at holding together a complex narrative and creating characters who reach out emotionally to the reader upon first meeting.
The people in John Murray's striking new collection of stories are control freaks: whether they are obsessive collectors of butterflies, dedicated trauma surgeons working in dangerous war zones or carpenters making sure that the joins and angles of a house are solid, these characters all see their vocations as a means of containing the chaos and uncertainty around them. They are believers in rules and devotees of order, people scared of the random dangers of the world and even more frightened of their own turbulent emotions.
The finest short stories arrived not only in major editions such as The Early Stories: 1953-1975 by John UpdikeJohn UpdikeJohn Hoyer Updike was an American novelist, poet, short story writer, art critic, and literary critic....
but also in Nadine GordimerNadine GordimerNadine Gordimer is a South African writer and political activist. She was awarded the 1991 Nobel Prize in Literature when she was recognised as a woman "who through her magnificent epic writing has – in the words of Alfred Nobel – been of very great benefit to humanity".Her writing has long dealt...
's Loot; A Few Short Notes on Tropical Butterflies, by John Murray, and Indelible Acts, by A. L. KennedyA. L. KennedyAlison Louise Kennedy is a Scottish writer of novels, short stories and non-fiction. She is known for a characteristically dark tone, a blending of realism and fantasy, and for her serious approach to her work...
, also proved that the art of compression thrives even in a literary climate of bluster and bloat
External references
- On Writing Interview, windreverpress, Michael Standiert
- Caught Between Places, The Atlantic, Curtis Sittenfeld, April 2, 2003
- A Few Short Notes on Tropical Butterflies: Stories By John Murray, WNYC
- Foreign Bodies, Michael Gorra, The New York Times, April 13, 2003