About Angela

Winner: Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for Unpublished Manuscript, 2004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
Shortlisted: Ned Kelly Award, Best Crime Fiction, 2014
Shortlisted: Davitt Award, Best Adult Crime Novel, 2014
Longlisted: Peter Carey Short Story Award 2020

Author photo: Suzanne Phoenix

Author bio

Angela Savage is an award winning Melbourne writer, who has lived and travelled extensively in Asia. Her debut novel, Behind the Night Bazaar, won the 2004 Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for an unpublished manuscript. All three of her Jayne Keeney PI novels were shortlisted for Ned Kelly Awards. The Dying Beach was also shortlisted for the 2014 Davitt Award.  She has taught writing throughout Australia and overseas. Angela holds a PhD in Creative Writing from Monash University, and is currently Director of Writers Victoria. Her novel, Mother of Pearl, is published by Transit Lounge.

The backstory

Angela Savage went to Southeast Asia in 1992 for six months and ended up staying six years. Based in Vientiane, Hanoi and later Bangkok, she managed a HIV/AIDS 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Behind the Night Bazaar won the 2004 Victorian Premier’s Literary Award in the unpublished manuscript category (as Thai Died).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 shortlisted for Best Fiction in the 2011 Ned Kelly Awards.

Her third novel, The Dying Beach, was shortlisted for both the 2014 Davitt Award for Best Adult Novel and the 2014 Ned Kelly Award for Best Fiction.

Angela’s short story, ‘The Odds’, first published in the Review of Australian Fiction, was selected by UK crime writer Sophie Hannah for inclusion in the anthology Deadlier: 100 Of The Best Crime Stories Written By Women, published by Head of Zeus.

Her fourth novel, Mother of Pearl, is a work of literary fiction and was published by Transit Lounge in 2019.

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 2000-2004, 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 and was published in the anthology Crime Scenes (Spineless Wonders, 2016). Other short stories have appeared in Deadlier: 100 Of The Best Crime Stories Written By Women (Head of Zeus, 2017), Review of Australian Fiction, Hard Labour (Crime Factory, Melbourne, 2012), Arena Magazine and Farrago.

Angela has also published works of non-fiction and has collaborated on comics with Bernard Caleo (see here for other publications).

Angela holds a PhD in Creative Writing at Monash University. She is former director of Writers Victoria. She is currently CEO of Public Libraries Victoria, a job she loves. She lives with her long-time partner, the writer Andrew Nette, and their daughter.

Interviews with and articles about Angela

The Savage Detective, The Big Issue, Ed #438, 2-15 August 2013
Working with words, The Wheeler Centre for Books, Writing, Ideas, 8 August 2013
Angela Savage Player Profile, Boomerang Books, 3 August 2013
Angela Savage’s The Dying Beach, Radio National Books and Arts Daily, 17 July 2013
Angela Savage: The Half-Child, Viewpoint, Autumn 2011
Australian Crime Fiction Snapshot – Angela Savage
Crime with a conscience, The Sunday Age, 11 June 2006.

Video

Barracuda: From Page to Screen – interview with Christos Tsiolkas and Tony Ayres, Melbourne Writers Festival, 3 Sept 2016
Ballarat Writers Presents The Great Crime Writers Debate: Dicks vs Dames, Death in July Festival, 5 July 2014
Alexander McCall Smith interview for The Wheeler Centre, 13 March 2014
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

Postcard to Melbourne, The Friday Revue, ABC Radio Melbourne, 12 April 2019
Jock Serong in conversation with Angela Savage, and launching his latest book Preservation. Recorded live at Blarney Books & Art in Port Fairy, 10 Nov 2018
Why become a surrogate? Radio National Books & Arts Daily, 17 October 2016
Thrilling summer: best crime reads of 2014, Radio National Books & Arts Daily, 11 December 2014
Crime fiction reviews: Lauren Beukes and Dawn Barker, Radio National Books & Arts Daily, 17 September 2014
Crime fiction reviews: Annie Hauxwell and Peter Docker, Radio National Books & Arts Daily, 25 June 2014
Crime fiction reviews: Fred Vargas and Honey Brown, Radio National Books & Arts Daily, 13 May 2014
Crime fiction reviews: Ian Rankin and John Grisham, Radio National Books & Arts Daily, 16 Dec 2013
Crime fiction reviews: Val McDermid and Anne Holt, Radio National Books & Arts Daily, 6 Nov 2013
Aural Text, 24 July 2013 (interview starts at 01:02:25)
Angela Savage’s The Dying Beach, Radio National Books and Arts Daily, 17 July 2013
Crime fiction reviews: Donna Leon & Karin Slaughter, Radio National Books & Arts Daily, 29 May 2013
Crime fiction reviews: Dennis Lehane & Tony Cavanaugh, Radio National Books & Arts Daily, 13 March 2013
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, JK Rowling, Radio National Books & Arts Daily, 30 May 2012
Crime Fiction with Angela Savage, Wendy James & Peter Corris, Radio National Books & Arts Daily, 1 March 2012 (reviews)
Best crime reads of 2011, Radio National Summer Breakfast, 27 Dec 2011 (reviews)