Stephen Orr is an Australian writer of novels, short stories and non-fiction. His works are set in uniquely Australian settings, including coastal towns, outback regions and the Australian suburbs. His fiction explores the dynamics of Australian families and communities. In a 2021 review of Orr’s Sincerely, Ethel Malley the author and critic Michael McGirr explained that Orr ‘is a prolific writer and his work is characterised by a methodical ability to deal with issues of substance. His writing has the energy required to sustain long narratives but is never histrionic.'[1]

Life

Stephen Orr was born in the Adelaide suburb of Hillcrest, South Australia, later reimagined as Gleneagles in his 2019 novel This Excellent Machine.

He was a long-time contributor to The Adelaide Review (2008-2020) and has written for The Guardian[2], Advertiser, Sydney Morning Herald/Age, Australian Book Review and other Australian newspapers and journals.

Career

2000-2010
Orr’s first novel Attempts to Draw Jesus (based on the disappearance of two jackaroos in the Great Sandy Desert in 1986) was runner-up in the 2000 Australian/Vogel’s Literary Award and published in 2002. His second novel, Hill of Grace, a portrait of a 1950s Barossa Valley religious cult awaiting the rapture, was released in 2004. In 2010 he published Time’s Long Ruin, a fictional study of grief following the disappearance of three children in 1960s Adelaide. It was later adapted by the State Opera of South Australia as the opera Innocence[3], with libretto by Adam Goodburn and music by Anne Cawrse.

2010-Present
His 2012 novel Dissonance[4] was a re-imagining of the lives of Rose and Percy Grainger. In the same year, his large scale ‘play for voices’ Westward Ho![5] was performed by a cast of international actors at the 2021 Adelaide Fringe Festival under the direction of Guy Masterson. His 2014 venture into crime writing, One Boy Missing[6], described the discovery of a lost boy in a small outback town, and the subsequent search for the cause of his trauma. The Hands (2015) was an examination of the fallout from drought and generational debt on a grazing family in remote South Australia. His novella ‘Datsunland’ was co-winner of the 2016 Griffith Review 54 Earthly Delights: The Novella Project IV and was published in the same year. This story also appeared in his 2017 book of short stories, Datsunland[7].
Incredible Floridas[8] (2017) was loosely based on the relationship between Australian artist Russell Drysdale and his son, Tim. His most recent books include a collection of outback stories (The Fierce Country, 2018), the semi-autobiographical novel This Excellent Machine (2019), a riff on the 1944 Earn Malley literary hoax (Sincerely, Ethel Malley[9], 2021) and a second collection of stories, The Boy in Time (2022). He was the Australian Book Review 2020 Eucalypt Fellow, completing the long-form essay Ambassadors from Another Time[10] (2020). Concerned about a lack of engaging books for boys in his classes he wrote and published The Lanternist[11], an Edwardian adventure story with illustrations by Timothy Ide, in 2021.

Novels and novellas

  • Attempts to draw Jesus 2002
  • Hill of Grace 2004
  • Time’s Long Ruin 2010
  • Dissonance 2012
  • One Boy Missing 2014
  • The Hands 2015
  • ‘Datsunland’ 2016
  • Incredible Floridas 2017
  • This Excellent Machine 2019
  • Sincerely, Ethel Malley 2021

Young Adult novel:

  • The Lanternist 2021

Short Story Collections:

  • Datsunland 2017
  • The Boy in Time 2022

Plays and Screenplays:

  • Bloodwood (screenplay adaptation of the novel Attempts to Draw Jesus, co-written with Peter O’Brien) 2014
  • Westward Ho! (play for voices) 2012

References

  1. ↑ McGirr, Michael (11 June 2021). "Nearly 80 years after Australia's greatest literary hoax, the story still has life". Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 27 February 2023.
  2. ↑ Orr, Stephen. "Stephen Orr". Muck Rack. Retrieved 18 Sep 2022.
  3. ↑ Taylor, Mary (22 June 2015). "Opera distills the story of Innocence Lost". InDaily. Retrieved 27 Sep 2022.
  4. ↑ Clarke, Stella (21 July 2012). Stephen Orr's novel, Dissonance dissects a mother's love. The Australian. Retrieved 18 Sep 2022.
  5. ↑ Westward ho!. SoundCloud. 2022. Retrieved 13 March 2023.
  6. ↑ Evans, Kate (2 April 2014). Stephen Orr's novel, One Boy Missing. ABC Radio National. Retrieved 18 Sep 2022.
  7. ↑ Goldsworthy, Kerryn (26 June 2017). Datsunland review: Stephen Orr's stories of characters and life in Adelaide. Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 18 Sep 2022.
  8. ↑ Woodhead, Cameron (15 January 2018). Incredible Floridas review: Stephen Orr delivers a haunting, powerful novel. Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 18 Sep 2022.
  9. ↑ Banyard, Jen (2021). Review of Sincerely, Ethel Malley by Stephen Orr. Westerly. Retrieved 18 Sep 2022.
  10. ↑ Ambassadors from Another Time. Australian Book Review. October 2017. Retrieved 18 Sep 2022.
  11. ↑ Gray, Lara Cain (26 June 2021). The Lanternist by Stephen Orr and Timothy Ide. Charming Language. Retrieved 18 Sep 2022.
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