About Anna

I was born in Adelaide, which is, as far as I know, the very best place to be born and means I will be forever plagued by nostalgia for terrible water, white sandy beaches, Balfour’s custard tarts and a boat called Popeye.

Now I live in Melbourne, where I write about brains and love and people and family and food and creativity. My short work has been published by the Guardian, The Big Issue, ELLE, Good Weekend, Meanjin, The Saturday Paper, The Lifted Brow, Overland, Kill Your Darlings, Daily Life, The Age, the ABC and many other places.

My nonfiction book is A KIND OF MAGIC, and it’s about anxiety, our minds, memory, time, love and optimism.

I’m also the author of two novels: THE PAPER HOUSE and THE GULF. I am the Nonfiction Editor for ISLAND Magazine.

I was the inaugural winner of The Horne Prize for my essay “The Suicide Gene”, and in 2018 was grateful to be supported by the Victorian Government through Creative Victoria as part of their Creators’ Fund.

I’m a PhD candidate at Deakin University, writing about memory, time, mental illness and self-making.

Other stuff.

Awards + Acknowledgements

Horne Prize (2016) “The Suicide Gene”
Australian Podcast Awards – Best Entertainment Podcast (2021) – Stuff of Legends (Scriptwriter)
Adweek Marketing Podcast of the Year (2019) – Face 2 Face (Scriptwriter)
Creative Victoria Creators’ Fund (2018) $25,000 to support writing Foundlings
Philip Brown History Award (2017)

Bios

Anna Spargo-Ryan is the award-winning author of A Kind of Magic, The Gulf and The Paper House, and a winner of the Horne Prize. Her work has appeared in The Big Issue, Island, Kill Your Darlings, Meanjin, Good Weekend, the Guardian, and many other places. She is a PhD candidate in Creative Writing at Deakin University, and nonfiction editor at ISLAND Magazine.

Publicity Enquiries / Review Copies

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