Cory Taylor

This article is about the writer. For the vocalist, see Corey Taylor. For the spree killer, see 2017 Fresno shootings.
Cory Taylor
Born1955
Southport, Queensland, Australia
Died (aged 61)
Windsor, Queensland, Australia
OccupationWriter
NationalityAustralian
Alma materAustralian National University
SpouseShin Koyama[1]
ChildrenTwo

Cory Taylor (1955 – 5 July 2016) was an Australian writer.

Taylor was born in Southport, Queensland and lived in Fiji and Kenya as a child. She studied history at the Australian National University, and then worked as a freelance film and television writer, with her work including the 1988 two-part television film Alterations for the ABC. Her first books were the Rat Tales and Bandaged Bear series of children's books.

Diagnosed with melanoma in 2005, Taylor turned to writing fiction and her 2011 début novel, Me and Mr Booker, won the Commonwealth Book Prize for the Pacific Region in 2012. Her next book, My Beautiful Enemy (2013), was shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Award.[2]

As her health worsened, Taylor wrote her last book Dying: A Memoir, which was published just before her death from melanoma-related brain cancer on 5 July 2016.[3] It was shortlisted for the 2017 Stella Prize[4] and included in Barack Obama's list of best books in 2017.[5]

Bibliography

Novels

  • Me and Mr Booker, Text Publishing, Melbourne, 2010, ISBN 1921758112
  • My Beautiful Enemy, Text Publishing, Melbourne, 2013, ISBN 9781922079893

Children's

  • Rat Tales, illustrated by Stephen Michael King, Scholastic Australia, Sydney, 1999, Vol. 1, Rat's Lucky Day and Rat Goes Fishing, ISBN 1863887393; Vol. 2, Rat and the Rude Cap and Rat and the Big Stink ISBN 1863889876
  • Bandaged Bear and the Broken Bones, co-authored with Peter Townsend, Scholastic Australia, Sydney, 2001, ISBN 1865043648
  • Bandaged Bear Saves His Breath, co-authored with Peter Townsend, Scholastic Australia, Sydney, 2001, ISBN 1865043656
  • Bandaged Bear and the Birthday Party, co-authored with Peter Townsend, Scholastic Australia, Sydney, 2002, ISBN 1865043664

Short stories

  • "Wildlife", Best Australian Short stories 2010 edited by Cate Kennedy (2010)
  • "Continental Drift", Griffith Review 34 (2011)
  • "Unsuitable", Bumf (2014)
  • "The White Experiment", Griffith Review 54 (2016)

Poetry

  • "Monkey Business", Griffith Review 31 (2011)

Essays

Autobiography

  • "Claiming the Dead", Griffith Review 48 (2015)
  • Dying: A Memoir, Text Publishing, Melbourne, 2016, ISBN 9781925355772

References

  1. ^ "Cory Taylor, Miles Franklin-nominated novelist whose last work was Dying: A Memoir". 8 July 2016.
  2. ^ Wyndham, Susan (6 July 2016). "Cory Taylor, author of Dying: A Memoir, has died". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 6 July 2016.
  3. ^ "Cory Taylor on dying for beginners". ABC Radio. 6 July 2016. Retrieved 6 July 2016.
  4. ^ "2017 Stella Prize Shortlist". The Stella Prize. Retrieved 10 February 2018.
  5. ^ "Here's Barack Obama's Favorite Books and Music of 2017". Time. Retrieved 1 November 2019.