Winton, Tim (1960-…), is a popular Australian novelist, short-story writer, and dramatist. Critics have praised his skill at creating imagery, especially of the natural world, as well as characters and settings, whether historical or modern. Four of Winton’s books have won the Miles Franklin Literary Award, Australia’s most important literary prize. In 2023, Winton was made an Officer of the Order of Australia. Appointment to the order is Australia’s highest award for service to the country or humanity. 
Winton’s first novel was An Open Swimmer (1982). He gained his first international recognition with his next novel, Shallows (1984). Winton set this work against a background of the whaling industry in the Western Australian seaside town of Albany. Winton’s strong Christian beliefs appear in many of his novels and short stories, beginning with the novel That Eye, the Sky (1986). In Cloudstreet (1991), Winton portrays the often turbulent relationship between two families living in the same house in Perth. The Riders (1994), Winton’s only novel set in Europe, describes the destruction of an Australian family after a young mother leaves her husband and child. Dirt Music (2001) traces the love between a man and a woman who have both been damaged by their pasts. Breath (2008) focuses on the risks of extreme surfing. In Eyrie (2013), a burned-out environmentalist retreats to a high-rise apartment. The Shepherd’s Hut (2018) portrays an unlikely friendship between a young man and a troubled priest set against the harsh saltlands of Western Australia.
Winton’s short fiction has been published in such collections as Scission (1985), Minimum of Two (1988), Blood and Water (1993), The Collected Shorter Novels of Tim Winton (1995), and The Turning (2004). He has written books for children, including a series about a teenage surfer named Lockie Leonard. His nonfiction has been published in an autobiographical trilogy consisting of Land’s Edge: A Coastal Memoir (2010), Island Home: A Landscape Memoir (2015), and The Boy Behind the Curtain: Notes from an Australian Life (2016). Winton’s plays include Signs of Life (2012), based on characters from his novel Dirt Music; Rising Water (2012); and Shrine (2013).
Timothy John Winton was born on Aug. 4, 1960, in Karrinyup, Western Australia. Determined from a young age to be a writer, he studied creative writing at Western Australian Institute of Technology (now Curtin University) in Perth. There, one of his teachers was the noted Australian writer Elizabeth Jolley. Winton graduated in 1980 with a degree in English. He achieved his first success at the age of 21, winning the 1981 Australian/Vogel’s Literary Award for An Open Swimmer.
