Fiona McFarlane (born 1978) is an Australian author, best known for her book The Night Guest and her collection of short stories The High Places. She is a recipient of the Voss Literary Prize, the UTS Glenda Adams Award for New Writing at the New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards, the Dylan Thomas Prize, and the Nita Kibble Literary Award.
Life and career
McFarlane was born in Sydney, Australia in 1978. She studied English at the University of Sydney, the University of Cambridge and the University of Texas at Austin.
Her debut novel, The Night Guest, was published in 2013 and is about a retired widow who lives alone and suffers from dementia. It won the Voss Literary Prize and the UTS Glenda Adams Award for New Writing at the New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards. It was also shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Award, The Stella Prize and the Guardian First Book Award.
In 2017, McFarlane won the Dylan Thomas Prize for her collection of short stories, The High Places.
McFarlane's writing has also appeared in Zoetrope: All-Story, Southerly and The New Yorker.
She was shortlisted for the Fiction Book Award at the 2023 Queensland Literary Awards and for the Fiction Award at the 2023 Prime Minister's Literary Awards for The Sun Walks Down.