Patrick Allington’s debut novel, Figurehead, was published by Black Inc. in 2009. Figurehead was longlisted for the 2010 Miles Franklin Literary Award. His short fiction has appeared in Meanjin, Griffith Review, The Big Issue, Southerly and elsewhere. His novels-in-progress are Potatoes in all their glory and Skylights.

As the inaugural Australian Book Review Patrons’ Fellow, Patrick wrote a major essay on the Miles Franklin Literary Award (published in ABR’s June 2011 issue and available here). At the 2010 Adelaide Festival Awards for Literature, he was awarded the Barbara Hanrahan Fellowship. Patrick has participated in Adelaide Writer’ Week (2012), Clunes Back to Booktown (2011) and the Sydney Writers’ Festival, Wordstorm (Darwin) and the Ubud Writers and Readers Festival (including satellite events in Semarang and Jakarta).

As a book critic, Patrick’s interests include fiction, current affairs, culture, biography and history. His critical writings appear regularly in Australian Book Review and The Advertiser (Adelaide), and have appeared in The Monthly, The Weekend Australian and elsewhere. Patrick was inaugural fiction editor of the Melbourne-based literary magazine, Etchings (and he misses it!).

He has a Masters in Politics and a PhD in Creative Writing from The University of Adelaide. Currently, he is Commissioning Editor at the University of Adelaide Press and Seniors Writer-in-Residence for the SA Writers’ Centre (based at Helping Hand Aged Care, Parafield Gardens). As a freelance editor, he has edited everything from fiction to scholarly works to medical handbooks. He has taught in both Politics and English at the University of Adelaide, and he conducts writing and editing workshops. He worked for many years in the book retail industry, most recently at Michael Treloar Antiquarian Booksellers.

Patrick lives in Adelaide, a place he both loves and loves complaining about