Kate Richards is an Australian writer, doctor and medical researcher. She writes and speaks about her experiences with mental illness, and is the author of two books on the subject.
Early life and education
Richards is a graduate of RMIT University in Melbourne, and Monash University, where she trained as a doctor while battling mental illness in the form of severe depression.
Career
After battling depression for fifteen years, including periods of self-harm and attempted suicide, Richards wrote a detailed account of her personal experiences, both with the illness itself and with the many psychiatrists and other health professionals who treated her. The book, titled Madness: A Memoir, was published by Penguin Books in 2013, and has been widely discussed and positively reviewed by both the literary and the medical communities. In 2014 the book won the $5000 Dobbie Literary Award for a first book by an Australian female writer and the Adelaide Festival Award for Literature (non-fiction).
In 2014, Richards' second book. Is There No Place For Me? Making Sense of Madness was published by Penguin Books. This book was shortlisted for the Government of Australia Human Rights Non-Fiction Literature Award.
In 2019 her first novel, Fusion, was published by Penguin Books. It was shortlisted for Best Novel at the 2019 Australian Shadow Awards.
Richards works as a medical researcher, and also writes and lectures about the writing process and about her experiences with mental illness.
Works
- Madness: A Memoir, Penguin Books, 2014
- Is There No Place For Me? Making Sense of Madness, Penguin Books, 2014
- Wild Minds: Writing from the Heart of Madness, Alternativas, 2018
- Fusion, Penguin Books, 2019
References
- "Bleakly poetic account of a personal struggle for sanity". Tim McGuire, The Australian 23 March 2013
- "Two of us: Kate Richards and Winsome Thomas".Sydney Morning Herald, 19 January 2013. Interviews by Konrad Marshal
- "Reading with the AU: Madness: A Memoir - Kate Richards". The AU Review, 23 February 2013 Kassia Byrnes
- "Madness: A Memoir by Kate Richards". GP Speak, by Robin Osborne, : 20 August 2013
- "Madness: A memoir" Sydney Morning Herald, 6 April 2013
- "Stephanie Dowrick urges you to read Kate Richards' brilliant MADNESS" Universal Heart Book Club.
- "Madness: A Memoir" Archived 2 April 2015 at the Wayback Machine. The Florey Institute.
- "Kibble and Dobbie awards 2014 winners announced ". Booksellers & Publishers.
- "Adelaide Festival Awards for Literature 2014 Winners Announced". Booksellers & Publishers.
- " The week in review". Sydney Review of Books 6 June 2014
- " Kate Richards, beyond the madness". By ROSEMARIE MILSOM, Newcastle Herald 2 May 2014,
- "Commission announces business and literature award shortlist". Australian Human Rights Commission.
- Richards, Kate (2019). Fusion. : Penguin Books. ISBN 9781926428703. OCLC 1083647960.
- "2019 Australian Shadows Awards Winners". Locus Online. 9 June 2020. Retrieved 21 August 2023.
- "Kristina Olsson wins Kibble literary award for true tale of a lost child". The Guardian.
- "Kate Richards: madness" Kate Richards, Ranjana Srivastava Australian Policy Online 5 January 2015
- "Wild Minds: Writing from the Heart of Madness" by Kate Richards Alternativas: Spring 2018
External links
- http://www.penguin.com.au/contributors/6859/kate-richards
- "The dark well" Sydney Morning Herald, 20 January 2013