Author(s): Kevin Brophy

Fiction

Kevin Brophy has worked as a carer for the aged and disabled, as a child psychologist, a roof tiler, cleaner, and a concrete labourer. After teaching developmental psychology for ten years at technical colleges, he lectured in creative writing for nearly twenty years at the University of Melbourne, where he is Emeritus Professor. As a writer he has chronicled the urban life of Melbourne, especially the street life of his heartland, Brunswick. He is a past winner of the Calibre Essay Prize, the Michel Wright Prize for poetry, and his fiction has been shortlisted for the Vogel Prize and the FAW Christina Stead award. He has been patron of the Melbourne Poets Union since 2004. In 2021 he was awarded an Order of Australia for services to creative writing. The Lion in Love is his second collection of short fiction.

A collection of stories worth noticing:

'There’s such a range in Brophy’s writing—he can move easily between tender and compassionate grace notes, and dark, troubled worlds, not to mention lightening dashes of humour (overt and sly). But through it all, you’re perpetually aware of an intense, intelligent, minutely observing eye fascinated by the consciousness of the people he’s creating, and allowing us inside... At the end of reading, I simply felt uplifted.' John Clanchy

'This is what literature should be: rich, subtle, intelligent, full of the magic and mystery of the world and of the human heart. I will return to this collection again and again. Kevin Brophy is a master at the height of his powers.' Emily Bitto

'Brophy’s stories are like precise, meticulous fables, full of characters holding on to small, hard-won truths. The stories are Chekhovian in their quiet empathy, which frequently leaves the reader with an enigmatic final image that shifts the aperture, giving us a poignant glimpse of something ineffable. I loved reading The Lion in Love.' Cate Kennedy

Kevin Brophy has worked as a carer for the aged and disabled, as a child psychologist, a roof tiler, cleaner, and a concrete labourer. After teaching developmental psychology for ten years at technical colleges, he lectured in creative writing for nearly twenty years at the University of Melbourne, where he is Emeritus Professor. As a writer he has chronicled the urban life of Melbourne, especially the street life of his heartland, Brunswick. He is a past winner of the Calibre Essay Prize, the Michel Wright Prize for poetry, and his fiction has been shortlisted for the Vogel Prize and the FAW Christina Stead award. He has been patron of the Melbourne Poets Union since 2004. In 2021 he was awarded an Order of Australia for services to creative writing. The Lion in Love is his second collection of short fiction.