Hannah Kent burst onto the world stage with the publication of Burial Rites (2013), which went on to be translated into over 30 languages, won an enormous number of prizes and went into adaptation for film for Sony Tristar. Her second novel The Good People was published in 2016, shortlisted for the Walter Scott award for Historical Fiction among many others and is being adapted for film by Aquarius.
Kent is also the cofounder of the arts and culture magazine and organisation Kill Your Darlings and more recently, has written an original feature film, Run Rabbit Run, which will be directed by Daina Reid (The Handmaid’s Tale) and produced by Carver and XYZ Films.
Kent’s latest novel is Devotion, published by Picador. She lives and works on Peramangk country near Adelaide, with her wife and two children.
Kent discusses:
- Being published in Voiceworks
- Validating her writing with the purchase of her first computer
- Co-founding Kill Your Darlings with Rebecca Starford
- The story behind how Burial Rites got published
- Writing historical fiction and dealing with the historical archive
- Approaching writing Australian historical fiction as a non-Indigenous person
- Reading writers who do excellent things with language – Mary Oliver, Sebastian Barry, Max Porter, Sarah Moss
- Using daily emails to herself as accountability
Advice: Trust in the process, keep showing up, keep putting words down, rewrite, rewrite, rewrite and eventually you’ll get there.
Recommended reading: Permafrost by SJ Norman
Follow Hannah Kent on Instagram or Twitter or check out her website.
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