Skip to content
home main static Home
Close this menu

Tasmanian Literary Awards

Born Into This by Adam Thompson (University of Queensland Press)

Image tiles

Born Into This

The stories in Born Into This throw light on a world of unique cultural practice and perspective, from Indigenous rangers trying to instil some pride in wayward urban teens on the harsh islands off the coast of Tasmania to those scraping by on the margins of white society railroaded into complex and compromised decisions. To this mix Adam Thompson manages to bring humour, pathos and occasionally a sly twist as his characters confront racism, untimely funerals, classroom politics and, overhanging all like a discomforting, burgeoning awareness for both white and black Australia, the inexorable damage and disappearance of the remnant natural world.

About the author

Adam Thompson is an emerging Aboriginal (pakana) writer from Tasmania, who writes contemporary short fiction. In 2016–17, Adam received writing awards through the Tamar Valley Writers Festival and the Tasmanian Writers and Readers Festival. Adam has been awarded a First Nations Fellowship at Varuna – The Writers House, several Arts Tasmania grants, and was one of ten recipients of The Next Chapter initiative through the Wheeler Centre. His debut collection Born Into This was shortlisted for the USQ Steele Rudd Award for a Short Story Collection and the 2021 Age Book of the Year Award. In 2022, Born Into This won the international Story Prize: Spotlight Award.