Gillian Mears

Gillian Mears was an Australian short story writer and novelist.
Her books Ride a Cock Horse and The Grass Sister won a Commonwealth Writers' Prize, shortlist, in 1989 and 1996, respectively. The Mint Lawn won The Australian/Vogel Award.
In 2003, A Map of the Gardens won the Steele Rudd Award.

Life

Mears was born at Lismore Base Hospital, and raised in Grafton, New South Wales where she was school dux of Grafton High School.
She moved to Sydney to study at university, beginning a degree in archaeology at the University of Sydney having been inspired to pursue a career in archaeology after reading Gods, Graves and Scholars by C. W. Ceram. At the age of 18, she withdrew from the course, and instead completed a degree in communications at University of Technology, Sydney.
She lived near Grafton, New South Wales. She died in May 2016 after living with multiple sclerosis for seventeen years.
Bernadette Brennan has written a biography of Gillian Mears.