In 'Cross-Country', a jilted lover manages to misinterpret her ex's new life. In 'Laminex and Mirrors', a young woman working as a cleaner in a hospital helps an elderly patient defy doctor's orders. In Like a House on Fire, Kennedy once again takes ordinary lives and dissects their ironies, injustices and pleasures with her humane eye and wry sense of humour. It is with this realistic portrayal of contemporary life that she is able to share a diversity of Australian voices.WINNER OF THE 2013 STEELE RUDD AWARD, QUEENSLAND LITERARY AWARDSįrom prize-winning short-story writer Cate Kennedy comes a new collection to rival her highly acclaimed Dark Roots. However, she portrays her characters-who are often conflicted by modern challenges or identity politics-without judgment. Her writing often addresses unequal power dynamics and is critical of traditional gender roles. The story is littered with references to Western capitalism and modernity, themes that Kennedy approaches with both humor and critical cynicism.
Preoccupied with television and mass-produced plastic toys, they are growing up in an increasingly globalized and capitalistic society, which the narrator seems unsure whether to embrace or confront. In “ Like a House on Fire”-the story that gives the collection its name-the narrator grapples with the challenge of remaining relevant to his three young children. Kennedy may have drawn on her own experiences as a mother in order to portray the ordinary tensions of family life, or perhaps she was influenced by the lives of those she observed in Victoria, Australia, where much of her writing is set. Throughout the anthology Like a House on Fire she explores the relationship between parents and their children. Kennedy is interested in universal human experiences and emotions, and takes her inspiration from everyday events in the world around her. More recently, her short story anthology Like a House on Fire was shortlisted for the Stella Prize (2013) and won the Steele Rudd Award in the same year. She has also published several poetry collections: Signs of Other Fires (2001), Joyflight (2004), and The Taste of River Water (2011). Kennedy’s memoir, Sing, and Don’t Cry (2005), charts her experiences traveling and working in rural Mexico. In 2010, for example, her novel The World Beneath won the People’s Choice Award at the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards, and she has won The Age Short Story competition twice.
Since then, she has published many fictional works-including her highly acclaimed short story collection Dark Roots (2006)-and been awarded numerous literary prizes.
She took a hiatus from writing after graduation, but began entering short story competitions again when she was in her thirties. As a teenager she won a short story prize in The Canberra Times, and she went on to study creative writing at university. Kennedy was born in Lincolnshire, England, but moved to Australia during her childhood.
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