Winner: Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for Unpublished Manuscript, 2004
Winner: Scarlet Stiletto Award, 2011
Shortlisted: Ned Kelly Award, Best First Book, 2007
Shortlisted: Ned Kelly Award, Best Crime Fiction, 2011
Angela Savage went to Southeast Asia in 1992 on a six-month scholarship and ended up staying six years. Based in Vientiane, Hanoi and later Bangkok, she managed a HIV/AIDS prevention program for the Australian Red Cross that covered Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, Burma and southern China. She returned home to Melbourne in 1998 determined to nurture her dream of becoming a published author.
Angela’s short story The Mole on the Temple won third prize in the Sisters in Crime Scarlet Stiletto Awards in 1998 and introduced Bangkok-based detective Jayne Keeney, the main character in her first novel, Behind the Night Bazaar, published by The Text Publishing Company in 2006.
Behind the Night Bazaar won the 2004 Victorian Premier’s Literary Award in the unpublished manuscript category (as Thai Died). It was shortlisted for the 2007 Ned Kelly Awards Best First Book and translated into German as Nachtmarkt.
Angela’s second novel, The Half-Child, was published by Text in September 2010. It was shortlisted for Best Fiction in the 2011 Ned Kelly Awards.
In the mid-1980s, Angela worked as an au pair in France, before completing an Arts degree at the University of Melbourne with Combined Honours in Criminology and the History & Philosophy of Science. Angela has published numerous articles based on her travels and her work in sexual health and international development.
Angela lived in Canberra from 1999-2002. In 2000-04, her work as Director of the Sexual Health and Family Planning Australia International Program took her to countries throughout the South Pacific and back to Southeast Asia.
In 2008, Angela and her family lived in Cambodia where she wrote The Half-Child and worked as a consultant on HIV and harm reduction.
Angela’s short story The Teardrop Tattoos won the 2011 Scarlett Stiletto Award.
Angela has also published works of non-fiction and has collaborated on comics with Bernard Caleo (see here for other publications).
Angela currently heads up a small peak body of community development organisations in Melbourne, Australia. She lives with her long-time partner, fellow crime writer Andrew Nette, and their daughter.
Interviews with and articles about Angela
Crime with a conscience, The Sunday Age, 11 June 2006.
Angela Savage: The Half-Child, Viewpoint, Autumn 2011
Australian Crime Fiction Snapshot – Angela Savage
Video
Law and Order Week 2011: Above the Law at the Wheeler Centre with Stuart Littlemore and PM Newton (chair)
Sisters in Crime at the Wheeler Centre September 2011 with Kerry Greenwood, Honey Brown, Lindy Cameron (panellist)
One Just World – Health at whose cost?, Melbourne Writers Festival August 2010, with Sir Gustav Nossal, The Hon Dame Carol Kidu and Dr. Sakena Yacoobi (panellist)
Podcasts
Best crime reads of 2012, Radio National Books & Arts Daily, 19 Dec 2012
Agatha Christie in Mesopotamia, Radio National Books & Arts Daily, 14 Sept 2012
Crime fiction reviews with Angela Savage, Radio National Books & Arts Daily, 30 May 2012
Crime Fiction with Angela Savage, Radio National Books & Arts Daily, 1 March 2012 (reviews)
Best crime reads of 2011, Radio National Summer Breakfast, 27 Dec 2011 (reviews)
