Introduction
Hannah Kent (born 1985) is an Australian writer and author.
Early life
Kent attended Heathfield High School.
Career
In 2010, Kent co-founded the Australian literary journal Kill Your Darlings.
In 2011 she won the inaugural Writing Australia Unpublished Manuscript Award for her novel Burial Rites.
A documentary about Kent's experiences in Iceland and writing Burial Rites was aired on ABC1 as an episode of Australian Story titled 'No More Than a Ghost,' on 1 July 2013.
She is completing a creative writing PhD at Flinders University.
Burial Rites
Published in May 2013, Burial Rites tells the story of Agnes Magnúsdóttir, a servant in northern Iceland who was condemned to death after the murder of two men, one of whom was her employer, and became the last woman put to death in Iceland. Kent was drawn to the idea of writing her story after a visit to the scene of the woman's execution in a lonely area of Iceland, close to where she stayed for some time as a Rotary student when she was 18. The novel crafts a more ambiguous, sympathetic image of the life of a woman widely regarded in popular opinion to have been 'an inhumane witch, stirring up murder'.It has been translated into thirty languages.
In 2017 it was confirmed that Jennifer Lawrence would play the role of Agnes Magnúsdóttir in a film adaptation.
The Good People
Kent's second novel The Good People (2016) is set in Ireland's County Kerry in 1825. It is the story of widow's struggle to find a cure for her grandson who has been struck down by a mysterious inability to speak and who is feared by others in this superstitious community as a changeling.
The Good People has been translated into ten languages.
Awards and recognition
THE GOOD PEOPLE (2016)
Shortlisted for the University of Queensland Fiction Book Award 2017
Shortlisted for the Readings Prize for New Australian Fiction 2017
Shortlisted for the Walter Scott Award for Historical Fiction (UK) 2017
Shortlisted for the Indie Books Award for Literary Fiction 2017
Shortlisted for the ABIA Literary Fiction Book of the Year Award 2017
BURIAL RITES (2013)
Winner of the Prix Critiqueslibres Decouvrir Étranger 2017
Winner of the ABIA Literary Fiction Book of the Year 2014
Winner of the Davitt Awards Best Debut Novel 2014
Winner of the Davitt Awards Reader's Choice 2014
Winner of the ABA Nielsen Bookdata Bookseller's Choice Award 2014
Winner of the Booktopia People's Choice Award 2014
Winner of the FAW Christina Stead Award 2013
Winner of the Indie Awards Debut Fiction of the Year 2014
Winner of the Victorian Premier's Literary Awards People's Choice Award 2014
Winner of the SMH Best Young Australian Novelist 2014
Shortlisted for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award 2015
Shortlisted for the Voss Literary Prize 2014
Shortlisted for the National Book Awards International Author of the Year 2014
Shortlisted for the Stella Prize 2014
Shortlisted for the Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction 2014
Shortlisted for the Victorian Premier's Prize for Fiction 2014
Shortlisted for the ALS Gold Medal 2014
Shortlisted for the Guardian First Book Award 2013
Shortlisted for the NIB Waverley Award for Literature 2013