Carol Lefevre holds both a M.A. and a Ph.D in Creative Writing from the University of Adelaide, where she is a Visiting Research Fellow. Her novels include If You Were Mine (2008), Nights in the Asylum (2007), which won the Kibble Award, the People's Choice Award at the South Australian Writers Festival, and was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers Prize. Her non-fiction book Quiet City: Walking in West Terrace Cemetery (2016) was shortlisted for the Adelaide Festival Awards for Literature. In 2016, Carol won the Barbara Hanrahan Fellowship at the South Australian Festival Awards for Literature. She was Writer-in-Residence at the J.M. Coetzee Centre for Creative Practice in 2016/17. Her novella, Murmurations (2020), was shortlisted for the 2021 Christina Stead Prize for fiction in the NSW Premier's Literary Awards, and for the Adelaide Festival Award for Fiction (2021). The Tower, a collection of connected short stories, was published in October 2022 by Spinifex Press.
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'Lefevre's touching, terrifying, courageous characters return to haunt us in this rich and companionable book - a treasure trove of social history and a fine writer's personal reflection on death and living.' - Nicholas Jose
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'Part personal reflection, part speculative fiction, Quiet City is also history and biography, made up of many short sections and lyrical observations. Fortunately for readers, small publishers like Wakefield Press continue to publish these weird and wonderful hybrids … This is an incredibly rich book and it is difficult to give an account of all that it contains. It is to Lefevre's credit that she has imbued it with respect and gravity. More so that it is entertaining and in spite of the subject matter, generally a pleasure to read. Through her stories, she has resurrected the dead-at least for a few moments-in the minds (if not in the hearts) of her readers.' - Nicolette Stasko, Southerly
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'After reading Lefevre's fascinating stories from the graves, walking in the West Terrace Cemetery will never be the same again.' - Nic Klaassen, Flinders Ranges Research
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'A must read.' - Marie, The Big Book Club
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'[Lefevre] has done thorough research in the cemetery archives and state records, and then enlivened and enriched this information with a true story-teller's gifts - an eye for vivid detail and a lyrical turn of phrase.' - Jennifer Osborn, Transnational Literature
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'A poignant and respectful collection … This book is wonderfully structured so that you can read from cover to cover, choose a path and walk with the author or choose a person from the index and just see what their history involves.' - Leanne Cuane, Glam Adelaide