Roger McDonald is the author of seven novels, two works of non-fiction, and a number of other works.

The middle son of a Presbyterian minister, Hugh Fraser McDonald, and a historian, Dr Lorna McDonald, his childhood was spent in the NSW country towns of Bribbaree, Temora

Temora, New South Wales

Temora is a town located in north east part of the Riverina area of New South Wales, south-west of the state capital, Sydney. At the 2006 census the population of Temora was 4,086.-History:...

, and Bourke

Bourke, New South Wales

-Transportation:Bourke can be reached by the Mitchell Highway, with additional sealed roads from town to the north , east and south . The town is also served by Bourke Airport and has Countrylink bus service to other regional centres, like Dubbo...

, before the family moved to Sydney. He attended The Scots College

The Scots College

For other schools with a similar name see Scots College.The Scots College is an independent Presbyterian day and boarding school for boys, located in Bellevue Hill, an eastern suburb of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia....

 and 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...

.

He was briefly a teacher, ABC producer, and publisher's editor in NSW, Tasmania, and Queensland, before moving to Canberra

Canberra

Canberra is the capital city of Australia. With a population of over 345,000, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The city is located at the northern end of the Australian Capital Territory , south-west of Sydney, and north-east of Melbourne...

 and taking up writing full-time in 1976, in order to complete his first novel, 1915. McDonald has since 1980 lived near Braidwood, NSW, apart from periods in Sydney and New Zealand.

His novels are 1915, Slipstream, Rough Wallaby, Water Man, The Slap, Mr Darwin's Shooter, The Ballad of Desmond Kale, and When Colts Ran. Non-fiction: Shearers' Motel and The Tree In Changing Light.

1915 won The Age Book of the Year

The Age Book of the Year

The Age Book of the Year Awards are annual literary awards presented by Melbourne's The Age newspaper. The awards were first presented in 1974. Since 1998 they have been presented as part of the Melbourne Writers Festival...

 in 1979 and the South Australian Biennial Literature Prize in 1980. In 1982 it was made into a seven-part ABC-TV television series. (Scripting: Peter Yeldham)

Shearers' Motel won the 1993 Banjo National Book Council Banjo Award for non-fiction. It was filmed as "Cross Turning Over" for ABC-TV in 1996 (Director: Robert Klenner)

McDonald was nominated for the Miles Franklin Award

Miles Franklin Award

The Miles Franklin Literary Award is an annual literary prize for the best Australian ‘published novel or play portraying Australian life in any of its phases’. The award was set up according to the will of Miles Franklin , who is best known for writing the Australian classic My Brilliant Career ...

 in 1994 for Water Man, and in 1999 for Mr Darwin's Shooter

Mr Darwin's Shooter

Mr Darwin's Shooter is a 1998 novel by Roger McDonald. It describes the life of Syms Covington, manservant to Charles Darwin on the voyage of the Beagle....

, which in that year won the 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...

, the 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 South Australian Premier's Awards, and the Adelaide Festival Book of the Year.

The Ballad of Desmond Kale won the Miles Franklin award in 2006 and the Adelaide Festival Prize for Fiction in 2008. McDonald won the O.Henry Prize in 2008 for "The Bullock Run" (story).

McDonald's eighth novel, "When Colts Ran", 2010, was shortlisted for the 2011 Miles Franklin Prize, the 2011 Victorian Premier's Prize, and the 2011 Prime Minister's Prize.

Novels

• 1915 (1979)
• Slipstream (1982)
• Melba (1988) (film novelisation)
• Rough Wallaby (1988)
• Flynn (1992) (film novelisation)
• Water Man (1993)
• The Slap (1996)
• Mr Darwin's Shooter
  Mr Darwin's Shooter
  Mr Darwin's Shooter is a 1998 novel by Roger McDonald. It describes the life of Syms Covington, manservant to Charles Darwin on the voyage of the Beagle....
  
  (1998)
• The Ballad of Desmond Kale
  The Ballad of Desmond Kale
  The Ballad of Desmond Kale is a Miles Franklin Award winning novel by Australian author Roger McDonald.-Dedication:For Lorna McDonaldwith love and thanksfor gifts of conversation, friendship, and exampleover a lifetime-External links:Reviews**...
  
  (2006)
• "When Colts Ran" (2010)

Non-fiction

• Mike Willesee's Australians (1988)
• Reflecting Labour: Images of Myth and Origin Over 100 Years (1991)
• Shearers' Motel (1992)
• Australia's Flying Doctors (1994) (text for Richard Woldendorp photographs)
• The Tree in Changing Light (2001)
• Wool: The Australian Story (2003) (text for Richard Woldendorp photographs)
• Australia's Wild Places (2009) (text for National Library of Australia archival photographs)

Edited

• The First Paperback Poets Anthology (1974)
• Gone Bush (1990)

Television scripts

• Melba (1988)
• Cross Turning Over (1995)

External links

• Roger McDonald at Random House Australia