Nick Earls

---

title: "Nick Earls" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["20th-century-australian-novelists", "21st-century-australian-novelists", "australian-male-novelists", "australian-male-short-story-writers", "1963-births", "living-people", "people-from-newtownards", "people-educated-at-anglican-church-grammar-school", "university-of-queensland-alumni", "university-of-queensland-mayne-medical-school-alumni", "emigrants-from-northern-ireland-to-australia", "writers-from-brisbane", "20th-century-australian-short-story-writers", "21st-century-australian-short-story-writers", "20th-century-australian-male-writers", "21st-century-australian-male-writers"] description: "Australian novelist" topic_path: "geography/australia" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nick_Earls" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Australian novelist ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox writer"]

Field	Value
name	Nick Earls
birth_name	Nicholas Francis Ward Earls
birth_date
birth_place	Newtownards, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom
occupation	Novelist
nationality	Australian
website
::

| name = Nick Earls | image = | imagesize = | caption = | pseudonym = | birth_name = Nicholas Francis Ward Earls | birth_date = | birth_place = Newtownards, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom | death_date = | death_place = | occupation = Novelist | nationality = Australian | period = | genre = | subject = | movement = | notableworks = | spouse = | partner = | children = | relatives = | influences = | influenced = | awards = | signature = | website = | portaldisp =

Nicholas Francis Ward Earls (born 8 October 1963) is a novelist from Brisbane, Australia, who writes humorous popular fiction about everyday life. The majority of his novels are set in his home town of Brisbane. He fronted a major Brisbane tourism campaign.

Biography

Earls was born on 8 October 1963 in Newtownards, Northern Ireland. He emigrated to Australia with his parents and sister at the age of nine. Living in Brisbane, he was educated at the Anglican Church Grammar School there. He completed a medical degree at the University of Queensland and worked as a GP before turning to writing.

Career

Earls has been compared to Nick Hornby. Zigzag Street, his second novel, won the Betty Trask Award in 1998 (sharing with Kiran Desai's Hullaballoo in the Guava Orchard). His young-adult novel, 48 Shades of Brown, won the Children's Book Council of Australia Book of the Year Award for older readers in 2000. Several of his novels (After January and 48 Shades of Brown) have been adapted for theatre, and 48 Shades of Brown was adapted into a film entitled 48 Shades, released in August 2006. Earls has also written other novels, including Bachelor Kisses (which borrows its title from a song by Brisbane band The Go-Betweens), Perfect Skin, World of Chickens, The Thompson Gunner, and young adult novels After January, and Making Laws for Clouds.

Earls has also contributed to the four best-selling anthologies in the Girls' Night In series as well as Kids' Night In and Kids' Night in 2 as editor. His most recent novels are Welcome to Normal, a collection of original short stories, The True Story of Butterfish, about a former rock star re-adjusting to mundane life in the Brisbane suburbs, and Monica Bloom, based on his own adolescent experience of an ill-fated crush.

Several of his books have been adapted for the stage by Brisbane's La Boite Theatre Company.

He is referenced in the film All My Friends Are Leaving Brisbane.

Bibliography

::data[format=table]

Year	Work	Notes
2021	Empires	novel
2017	Wisdom Tree	novella series
2015	New Boy	novel
2014	Analogue Men	novel
2012	Welcome to Normal	short stories
2011	The Fix	novel
2009	The True Story of Butterfish	novel
2007	Joel and Cat Set the Story Straight	young adult novel, co-written with Rebecca Sparrow
A revealed life: Australian writers and their journeys in memoir	collection of memoirs from Australian writers, including Nick Earls, edited by Julianne Schultz
2006	Monica Bloom	young adult novel
Making waves: 10 years of the Byron Bay Writers Festival	collection of short works by Australian authors, including Nick Earls, edited by Marele Day, Susan Bradley Smith and Fay Knight
2004	The Thompson Gunner	novel
2003	Kid's Night In	edited by Jessica Adams, Juliet Partridge and Nick Earls
2002	Making Laws for Clouds	young adult novel
2001	World of Chickens	novel
2000	Penguin Australian Summer Stories 3	collection of short stories by Australian authors including Nick Earls
Perfect Skin	novel
1999	48 Shades of Brown	young adult novel
1998	Bachelor Kisses	novel. Set in a house in Bayliss Street, Toowong, Brisbane, Australia.
There Must Be Lions: Stories About Mental Illness	with Sonya Hartnett and Heide Seaman, features Nick Earl's short story There Must Be Lions
The Gift of Story	edited by Marion Halligan and Rosanne Fitzgibbon, features Nick Earls' short story Plaza
1996	Zigzag Street	novel. Set in a house addressed as 34 Zigzag Street, Red Hill, Brisbane, Australia.
After January	young adult novel
Smashed: Australian drinking stories	collection, edited by Matthew Condon and Richard Lawson, includes Nick Earls' short story Green
Original Sin	edited by Robyn Sheahan, includes Nick Earls' short story Box-shaped Heart
Sporting Declaration	edited by Manfred Jurgensen, includes Nick Earls' short story PE
Blur: Stories by young Australian writers	edited by James Bradley, includes Nick Earls' short story Head games
1995	Paradise To Paranoia: New Queensland Writing	edited by Nigel Krauth and Robyn Sheehan, includes Nick Earls' short story Meanwhile, thirty-eight above Charlotte
Picador New Writing 3	edited by Drusilla Modjeska and Beth Yahp, includes Nick Earls' short story The Goatflap brothers and the house of names
Nightmares in Paradise	compiled by Robyn Sheahan, includes Nick Earls' short story Juliet
::

For children

Series: Word Hunters

Short fiction

::data[format=table] | Title | |Year | |First published | |Reprinted/collected | |---|---|---|---| | Moving | 1993 | Issue titled Queensland, words and all. | | | Dog 1, Dog 2 | 1993 | Issue titled Queensland, words and all. | | ::

Collections

Poetry

Critical studies and reviews

• Review of The fix.
• Introduction to a reissue of The Delinquents by Criena Rohan, 2014 Retrieved 17 October 2015

References

References

1. link. (24 July 2008 , Brisbane Marketing, 20 March 2002.)
2. [http://www.penguingroup.com.au/puffin/Authors/Questions/0000000547.cfm?Heading=Yes Author: Nick Earls], [[Penguin Group]]
3. Mason, James. (2011). "Churchie: The Centenary Register". The Anglican Church Grammar School.
4. Silkstone, Dan: [http://www.theage.com.au/news/in-depth/mature-face-of-aussie-lad-lit/2006/07/14/1152637869772.html Mature face of Aussie lad lit], ''[[The Age]]'', 15 July 2006.
5. Wyndham, Susan: [http://www.smh.com.au/news/books/the-hot-seat-nick-earls/2006/08/31/1156817014579.html The Hot Seat: Nick Earls], ''[[The Sydney Morning Herald]]'', 2 September 2006.
6. "The Betty Trask Prizes and Awards:Past Winners". The Society of Authors.
7. "Winners 2000 - 2006 - CBCA".
8. [http://www.nickearls.com/ Sunny Garden – The Official Nick Earls Website]. ''Sunny Garden – The Official Nick Earls Website''. 23 April 2007.
9. (1998). "Bachelor Kisses". Viking.
10. (1996). "Zigzag Street". Anchor.

::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::