MEDIA RELEASE

If Geoffrey Dean had not had an interfering brother back in about 1956, he he might never have entered the literary arena and become an acclaimed writer of short stories.

Almost 50 years ago, Dean was in Europe, about to embark for Canada for a spot of lumberjacking, working as an assistant fireman on the Canadian railways, selling sewing machines to Native Canadians, and whatever might turn up. Back in his home town of Hobart, his brother Graeme had found a short story of Dean’s, ‘The Last Page’, and without his knowledge entered it in a competition run by The Mercury newspaper. It won a couple of pounds – Dean’s first literary earning. Now Dean, 75, celebrates another milestone in a long-distance literary career – publication of his sixth collection of short stories.

On Thursday (November 18), Dean, 76, celebrated another milestone in a long-distance literary career - publication of his sixth collection of short stories - 'The Literary Lunch, Selected Stories', published by Roaring Forties Press, was launched by Lindsay Tuffin, editor of the online news source, The Tasmanian Times. Tim Thorne's launch speech at Fullers Bookshop, 93 St John St, Launceston on Friday, 3 December 2004 is online here.

In the decades since his first publication, Dean’s mastery of the short story has been proved by the publication of scores of his stories around the world, and a truly enviable swag of prizes, awards, commendations, laudatory reviews and praise.

His major credits include the State of Victoria Short Story Award and the Northern Territory Literary Awards Arafura Short Story Award. The title story from his collection Summerbird and Other Stories (William Collins 1989) was translated for an anthology of Australian writers published in China in 1992. His story ‘The Town that Died’ was selected by the late Thea Astley, as compiler, for inclusion in Coast to Coast: Australian Stories 1969-1970, and in 1986 was made into an ABC TV tele-drama broadcast in Australia and sold overseas.

In fact, Astley was among the first to note what she described as his ‘haunting and poetic quality’. Various critics have compared aspects of his work with Anton Chekov, Katherine Mansfield, Somerset Maugham, A.E. Coppard and William Faulkner.

The 19 short stories in the collection represent a kind of ‘greatest hits’ retrospective of a distinguished literary career that is far from over.

Read what the critics have said about Geoff's writing ...