Biography

Dessaix was born in Sydney and adopted at an early age. He was educated at North Sydney Boys High School

North Sydney Boys High School

North Sydney Boys High School is an academically selective, public high school for boys, located at Crows Nest in Sydney, Australia.- History :...

. He studied in Moscow

Moscow

Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...

 during the early 1970s, and taught Russian Studies at the Australian National University

Australian National University

The Australian National University is a teaching and research university located in the Australian capital, Canberra.As of 2009, the ANU employs 3,945 administrative staff who teach approximately 10,000 undergraduates, and 7,500 postgraduate students...

 and the University of New South Wales

University of New South Wales

The University of New South Wales , is a research-focused university based in Kensington, a suburb in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia...

 from 1972 to 1984. During this time he translated a number of Russian books into English in collaboration with Michael Ulman, including The Sheepskin Coat and An Absolutely Happy Village by Boris Vakhtin.

From 1985 to 1995 he presented the ABC program Books and Writing.

His first book was his autobiography, A Mother's Disgrace which was published in 1994 by HarperCollins

HarperCollins

HarperCollins is a publishing company owned by News Corporation. It is the combination of the publishers William Collins, Sons and Co Ltd, a British company, and Harper & Row, an American company, itself the result of an earlier merger of Harper & Brothers and Row, Peterson & Company. The worldwide...

. ISBN 0-207-17934-4 Manuscripts concerning A Mother's Disgrace are in the Mitchell Library

State Library of New South Wales

The State Library of New South Wales is a large public library owned by the state of New South Wales, Australia. It is located in Macquarie Street, Sydney near Shakespeare Place...

 of New South Wales. The manuscript was written in French, and the book concerns his journey to an alternative sexuality after twelve years of marriage and his meeting with his birth mother Yvonne. It was made into a screenplay by Ross Wilson in 1999.

His first fictional work, Night Letters, was published in 1996 and worked on as early as 1994. It was translated into German, French, Italian, Dutch, Finnish and Portuguese. ISBN 0-312-19939-2

His second novel was Corfu which was published in 2001. ISBN 0-330-36278-X

Dessaix' latest long work, Twilight of Love: Travels with Turgenev defies genre characterisation, interweaving a personal travelogue with a biography of Turgenev. It was published in 2004. It takes inspiration from his doctoral thesis on Turgenev and the Soviet Union, as well as Alain de Botton

Alain de Botton

Alain de Botton is a Swiss writer, television presenter, and entrepreneur, resident in the UK.His books and television programs discuss various contemporary subjects and themes in a philosophical style, emphasizing philosophy's relevance to everyday life. In August 2008, he was a founding member...

's works on travel, art and philosophy. ISBN 1-59376-063-9

Novels

• Night Letters: A Journey Through Switzerland and Italy Edited and Annotated by Igor Miazmov (1996)
• Secrets (1997)
• Corfu (2001)

Autobiography

• A Mother's Disgrace (1994)
• Arabesques : A Tale of Double Lives (2008)

Non-fiction

• (And So Forth) (1998)
• Twilight of Love: Travels with Turgenev (2004)

Edited

• Australian Gay and Lesbian Writing: An Anthology (1993)
• Picador New Writing (1993)
• Speaking Their Minds: Intellectuals and the Public Culture in Australia (1998)
• The Best Australian Essays 2004 (2004)
• The Best Australian Essays 2005 (2005)

Awards and nominations

• NBC Banjo Awards, NBC Banjo Award for Non-Fiction, 1994: A Mother's Disgrace - shortlisted
• Booksellers Choice Award, 1996: Night Letters : A Journey Through Switzerland and Italy Edited and Annotated by Igor Miazmov - joint winner
• Australian Literature Society Gold Medal, 1997: Night Letters: A Journey Through Switzerland and Italy Edited and Annotated by Igor Miazmov - winner
• Colin Roderick Award
  Colin Roderick Award
  The Colin Roderick Award is presented annually by the Foundation for Australian Literary Studies at Queensland's James Cook University for "the best book published in Australia which deals with any aspect of Australian life". It was first presented in 1967 and currently has a prize of A$10,000....
  
  , 1998: (And So Forth) - winner
• Waverley Library Award for Literature, 2005: Twilight of Love: Travels with Turgenev - shortlisted
• Victorian Premier's Literary Award
  Victorian Premier's Literary Award
  The Victorian Premier's Literary Awards were created by the Victorian Governmentwith the aim of raising the profile of contemporary creative writing and Australia's publishing industry....
  
  , The Nettie Palmer Prize for Non-Fiction, 2005: Twilight of Love: Travels with Turgenev - winner
• 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...
  
  , Douglas Stewart Prize for Non-Fiction, 2005: Twilight of Love : Travels with Turgenev - shortlisted
• Margaret Scott Prize, 2007: Twilight of Love : Travels with Turgenev - winner

External links

• http://www.abc.net.au/rn/bookshow/stories/2008/2379986.htm Transcript of interview with Ramona Koval
  Ramona Koval
  Ramona Koval is an Australian broadcaster, writer and journalist.Her parents were Yiddish-speaking survivors of the Holocaust who arrived in Melbourne from Poland in 1950....
  
   about "Arabesques" on The Book Show
  The Book Show
  The Book Show is an Australian ABC radio program for the discussion of everything relating to the written word. It is broadcast live around Australia on Radio National with a daily weekday morning show which is then replayed nightly and also has a Sunday evening show. The show is hosted by Ramona...
  
   on ABC Radio National, 7 October 2008.
• Robert Dessaix's Australian Literary Management page
• Literary Encyclopedia entry on Robert Dessaix
• A profile and bibliography from the Brisbane Writers Festival 2004 including his sessions there
• Mitchell Library Collection of the Papers of Robert Dessaix's A Mother's Disgrace
• Mitchell Library Collection of the Papers of Robert Dessaix's Night Letters
• An Interview with Robert Dessaix by Jayne Margetts
• Lingua Franca interview with Dessaix about his personal language K
• Interview with Dessaix by Phil Lecks
• Guardian Review of Twilight of Love: Travels with Turgenev
• His best second self - review from the Telegraph of Twilight of Love
• Robert Dessaix - public intellectuals in Australia':interview with Phillip Adams, Late Night Live, ABC Radio National