Kylie Tennant
Kathleen Kylie Tennant was an Australian novelist, playwright, short-story writer, critic, biographer, and historian.
Early life and career
Tennant was born in Manly, New South Wales; she was educated at Brighton College in Manly and Sydney University, though she left without graduating. She was a publicity officer for the Australian Broadcasting Commission, as well as working as a journalist, union organiser, reviewer, a publisher's literary adviser and editor, and a member of the Commonwealth Literary Fund advisory board. She married L. C. Rodd in 1933; they had two children.Her work was known for its well-researched, realistic, yet positive portrayals of the lives of the underprivileged in Australia. In a video interview filmed in 1986, three years before her death, for the Australia Council's Archival Film Series, Tennant told how she lived as the people she wrote about, travelling as an unemployed itinerant worker during the Depression years, living in Aboriginal communities and spending a short time in prison for research.
Two of Tennant's novels, Battlers and Ride on Stranger, set in the 1930s, have been made into television mini-series.
"Kylie's Hut", the author's retreat in Crowdy Bay, was destroyed during the 2019–20 Australian bushfire season.
Personal life
Tennant was raised in a devout Christian Science family and her mother was a Christian Science practitioner. She converted to Anglicanism upon her marriage, which her family supported.Awards
- 1935: S. H. Prior Memorial Prize awarded by The Bulletin magazine, for Tiburon
- 1940: S. H. Prior Memorial Prize, for The Battlers, shared with Eve Langley, The Pea-Pickers, and Malcolm Henry Ellis's "John Murtagh Macrossan lectures".
- 1942: Australian Literature Society Gold Medal for The Battlers
- 1960: Children's Book Council Book Award for All the Proud Tribesmen
- 1980: Officer of the Order of Australia for services to literature
Commemorations
Two streets are named for Tennant:- Kylie Tennant Street, Franklin, ACT
- Kylie Tennant Close, Glenmore Park, NSW
Novels
Tiburon — first published in serial form in The BulletinFoveaux The Battlers Time Enough Later. A humorous coming of age story about a young woman and her relationship with an artistic older man.Ride on Stranger Lost Haven The Joyful Condemned The Honey Flow Tell Morning This — complete version of The Joyful CondemnedThe Man on the Headland- ''Tantavallon''
Short stories
- ''Ma Jones and Little White Cannibals''
For children
Long John Silver — adapted from the screenplay by Martin RackinAll the Proud Tribesmen — illustrated by Clem Seale. Children's Book Award Come and See: social studies for Third Grade We Find the Way: social studies for Fourth Grade Trail Blazers of the Air — illustrated by Roderick ShawPlays
Modern Plays for Schools 3 Tether a Dragon — Commonwealth Jubilee Stage Play PrizeModern Plays for Schools 15 The Bushrangers' Christmas Eve and other plays- Nex' Town - book for musical
Biography and history
Australia: Her Story Speak You So Gently: Lives among the Australian Aborigines — about the Rev Alf Clint Evatt: Politics and justice The Missing Heir — her autobiographyCriticism
The Development of the Australian Novel- ''The Australian Essay''