{{Short description|Australian poet, essayist, memoirist and novelist (1948–2021)}} {{Use Australian English|date=November 2016}} {{Use dmy dates|date=August 2014}} {{Infobox writer | name = Kate Jennings | image = | alt = | caption = | birth_name = Catherine Ruth Jennings | birth_date = {{Birth date|df=yes|1948|5|20}} | birth_place = Temora, New South Wales, Australia | death_date = {{Death date and age|df=yes|2021|5|1|1948|5|20}} | death_place = New York City, New York, U.S. | occupation = {{hlist|Poet|writer|essayist|memoirist|novelist}} | education = University of Sydney | alma_mater = | notableworks = ''Moral Hazard'' | awards = Various (see below) | years_active = 1970–2021 | spouse = {{marriage|Bob Cato|1987|1999|end=died}} }} '''Catherine Ruth Jennings''' (20 May 1948 – 1 May 2021<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.smh.com.au/national/i-miss-her-poet-and-writer-kate-jennings-dies-aged-72-20210502-p57o5u.html |title='I miss her': Poet and writer Kate Jennings dies aged 72 |work=The Sydney Morning Herald |date=2 May 2021 |access-date=3 May 2021 |author1=Mitchell, Georgina |author2=Dye, John |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210502034522/https://www.smh.com.au/national/i-miss-her-poet-and-writer-kate-jennings-dies-aged-72-20210502-p57o5u.html |archive-date=2 May 2021 |url-status=live}}</ref>) was an Australian poet, essayist, memoirist, and novelist.
==Biography== Born at Temora, Jennings grew up on a farm near Griffith, New South Wales. She attended the University of Sydney in the late 1960s, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree with honours.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=Kate Jennings |url=https://www.austlit.edu.au/austlit/page/A18028 |access-date=2025-03-21 |website=AustLit: Discover Australian Stories |publisher=The University of Queensland}}</ref> She was active in feminist and left wing-movements, in particular gaining notoriety for an incendiary speech given before a Vietnam Moratorium march in 1970 – a speech that is credited with signalling the beginning of the second wave of feminism in Australia.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Brett |first1=Judith |date=2025 |title=Fearless Beatrice Faust |place=Melbourne, Australia |publisher=Text Publishing |page=99 |isbn=9781923058316 }}</ref>
She also edited ''Mother I'm Rooted'', an anthology of women poets which was the object of much controversy.<ref name="Moore 2021">{{cite news |last1=Moore |first1=Nicole |title='Famously fed up' : How the work of feminist writer Kate Jennings changed Australia |url=https://theconversation.com/famously-fed-up-how-the-work-of-feminist-writer-kate-jennings-changed-australia-160267 |access-date=11 January 2024 |agency=The Conversation |date=5 May 2021}}</ref>
She moved to New York City in 1979, where she wrote for numerous magazines and newspapers, in addition to a stint on Wall Street as a speechwriter.<ref name= "Moore 2021"/>
===Personal life and death=== In 1983, Jennings met Bob Cato, a graphic designer, photographer, and collagist who helped turn the record album into an important form of contemporary art. They were married in 1987; he died in March 1999.<ref name="Cato obit">{{cite web |title=Bob Cato, 75, Designer of Covers for Albums |website=The New York Times |date=20 March 1999 |first=Nick |last=Ravo |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1999/03/20/arts/bob-cato-75-designer-of-covers-for-albums.html}}</ref>
Jennings died on 1 May 2021, in New York.<ref name="haigh">{{cite web |url=https://www.theaustralian.com.au/arts/books/expat-writer-kate-jennings-had-a-voice-both-fierce-and-fun/news-story/7bafe09361978b0a9c74c49651281b3b |title=Expat writer Kate Jennings had a voice both fierce and fun |work=The Australian |date=2 May 2021 |access-date=2 May 2021 |author=Haigh, Gideon |url-access=subscription |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210503013158/https://www.theaustralian.com.au/subscribe/news/1/?sourceCode=TAWEB_WRE170_a&dest=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theaustralian.com.au%2Farts%2Fbooks%2Fexpat-writer-kate-jennings-had-a-voice-both-fierce-and-fun%2Fnews-story%2F7bafe09361978b0a9c74c49651281b3b&memtype=anonymous&mode=premium&nk=97d29b95bfed9a469cf8c987a43c4421-1620005517 |archive-date=3 May 2021 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Moore 2021"/>
==Works== Her poetry and short stories were well received, but she came into her own with her novels. Her first, ''Snake'' was described variously as "lethal and fast-moving" (''Publishers Weekly''),<ref>{{Cite web |date=31 March 1997 |title=Snake by Kate Jennings |url=https://www.publishersweekly.com/9780880015387 |access-date=22 July 2024 |website=Publishers Weekly}}</ref> "a narrative of pure anguish" (''The Times Literary Supplement''), and "possessing a holographic shimmer" (''The New York Times Book Review'').<ref>{{Cite web |last=Shields |first=Carol |date=11 May 1997 |title=Scenes From a Mismarriage |url=https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/97/05/11/reviews/970511.shields.html |access-date=23 July 2024 |website=New York Times Archive}}</ref> It was reported to have just missed the Booker Prize shortlist. ''Moral Hazard'' has been called "humane and unsparing; witty, unsettling, and wildly intelligent" by Shirley Hazzard, author of ''The Transit of Venus''.
Jennings was awarded the Christina Stead Prize for fiction for ''Moral Hazard'', which was also shortlisted for the 2003 Miles Franklin Award, the Los Angeles Times Fiction Prize,<ref>{{Cite web |date=10 March 2003 |title=Los Angeles Times Book Prize Finalists Announced |url=https://www.latimes.com/la-mediacenter-2003-01-story.html |access-date=23 July 2024 |website=Los Angeles Times}}</ref> and the Tasmania Pacific Region Prize. ''Snake'' was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year, as was ''Moral Hazard''.<ref>{{Cite web |date=7 December 1997 |title=Notable Books of the Year 1997 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1997/12/07/books/notable-books-of-the-year-1997.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231114134720/https://www.nytimes.com/1997/12/07/books/notable-books-of-the-year-1997.html |archive-date=November 14, 2023 |access-date=23 July 2024 |website=The New York Times}}</ref>
Both books contain strong autobiographical elements, ''Snake'' being about a girl growing up on a Riverina farm in the 1950s, and ''Moral Hazard'' about a couple facing Alzheimer's in the husband while the wife works as a speechwriter on Wall Street.
In 2008, she published ''Stanley and Sophie'', a memoir ostensibly about her dogs but also about life in New York City after 9/11, politics in the US and her encounters with two macaques in Bali at the time of the 2005 bombing there.
In March 2010, she published "Trouble", an autobiographical collection of her best work from the last four decades,<ref name=":0" /> covering topics from politics, morality, finance, feminism and the writing life.
Jennings is also known for writing outspoken essays and op-eds on the state of fiction, the direction of feminism, malfeasance in the financial industry, and the abuse of language in the business world. Andrew Field, a prominent Nabokov scholar, describes Jennings as a "ferocious truth-teller". He also cites her "humor, her obdurate individuality, and her willingness to say what other people won't."
==Awards and nominations== {| class=wikitable |- | 1991 winner | Steele Rudd Award<ref name=":0" /> | for ''Women Falling Down in the Street'' |- | 1993 winner | NBC Banjo Awards, NBC Turnbull Fox Phillips Poetry Prize<ref name=":0" /> | for ''Cats, Dogs and Pitchforks'' |- | 1998 winner | Mildura Writers' Festival, Philip Hodgins Memorial Medal<ref name="Hodgin">{{cite web|title=Mildura Writers' Festival, Thursday 20 – Sunday 23 July 2006 |publisher=Arts Festival 07 Mildura/Wentworth |url=http://www.mwaf.com.au/html/mainnav/writers.html |accessdate=4 August 2007 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20070608112227/http://www.mwaf.com.au/html/mainnav/writers.html |archivedate= 8 June 2007 |url-status=dead}}</ref> | |- | 2003 shortlisted | The Miles Franklin Award<ref name=":0" /> | for ''Moral Hazard'' |- | 2003 winner | Australian Literature Society Gold Medal<ref name=":0" /> | for ''Moral Hazard'' |- | 2003 winner | NSW Premier's Award, Christina Stead Prize for Fiction<ref name=":0" /> | for ''Moral Hazard'' |- | 2003 winner | Adelaide Festival Fiction Prize<ref name=":0" /> | for ''Moral Hazard'' |}
==Bibliography==
=== Novels === *''Snake'' (1996) *''Moral Hazard'' (2002)
=== Short fiction === ;Collections *''Women Falling Down in the Street'' (1990) <!--;Stories {|class='wikitable sortable' width='90%' |- !width=25%|Title !|Year !|First published !|Reprinted/collected !|Notes |- |Title |Year |First published |Reprinted/collected |Notes |- |}-->
=== Poetry === ;Collections *''Come to Me My Melancholy Baby'' (1975) *''Cats, Dogs and Pitchforks'' (1993) ;Anthologies (edited) *''Mother I'm Rooted'' (1975) <!--;Selected list of poems {|class='wikitable sortable' width='90%' |- !width=25%|Title !|Year !|First published !|Reprinted/collected |- |Title |Year |First published |Collected in |- |}-->
=== Selected articles === *[http://www.strategy-business.com/press/article/14601?pg=0 "Best Business Books of the Millennium: Business Novels"], ''Strategy+Business'' Q4 2001 *"Doublethink on Wall Street", ''Financial Times'', 10 May 2002 *"The Hypocrisy of Wall Street Culture", ''The New York Times'', 14 July 2002 *"Among the Strong and the Shrewd", ''Australian Financial Review'', 2 May 2003 *"Gutless Fiction", ''Australian Financial Review'', 26 August 2005 *"The Serious Business of Literature", ''Los Angeles Times Book Review'', 11 May 2003 *"Less is More", ''Prospect'' magazine, February 2003 *"To Hell with the Future", ''Australian Financial Review'', May 2009 * {{cite journal <!--|author=Jennings, Kate |author-mask=1--> |date=Dec 2010 |title=Everywhere and nowhere : the Second Ray Mathew Lecture, 29 June 2010 |journal=The National Library Magazine |volume=2 |issue=4 |pages=23‒26 |url=https://webarchive.nla.gov.au/awa/20140212153544/http://www.nla.gov.au/pub/nlanews/2010/dec10/index.html <!--|access-date=2022-02-24-->}}<ref>A recording of the lecture is [https://www.nla.gov.au/ray-mathew-lecture/2010 available].</ref> *[https://web.archive.org/web/20080718235006/http://www.businesswriters.com.au/media/tbw_sample.pdf "Letting in the Sunlight"], ''The Business Writer'' *[http://www.themonthly.com.au/monthly-essays-kate-jennings-otters-life-learning-swim-2927 "An Otter's Life: Learning to Swim"], ''The Monthly'' magazine, December 2010 – January 2011 issue
=== Essay collections === *''Save Me, Joe Louis'' (1988) *''Bad Manners'' (1993)
=== Memoirs === *''Stanley and Sophie'' (2008) *''Trouble'' (2010)
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== *[https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-132124767/view Portrait of Kate Jennings] *[http://www.randomhouse.com.au/Authors/Default.aspx?Page=Author&ID=Jennings,%20Kate Kate Jennings at Random House Australia] *[https://web.archive.org/web/20070608112227/http://www.mwaf.com.au/html/mainnav/writers.html Mildura Writer's Festival] *[http://www.emsah.uq.edu.au/awsr/recent/133/awbr133.doc Kate Jennings. Interview with Julie McCrossin] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080723114628/http://emsah.uq.edu.au/awsr/recent/133/awbr133.doc |date=23 July 2008 }}. Radio National, ''Life Matters'', 23 May 2002. *[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDaA7hDWK4g Interview with Elliot Perlman], May 2008 *[https://www.nytimes.com/books/97/05/11/reviews/970511.shields.html "Scenes from a Mismarriage"] by Carol Shields, ''New York Times Book Review'', 11 May 1997 (review of ''Snake'') *[http://www.newstatesman.com/200204150047 ''Moral Hazard''] Amanda Craig, ''New Statesman'', 15 April 2002
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Jennings, Kate}} Category:1948 births Category:2021 deaths Category:20th-century Australian novelists Category:20th-century Australian short story writers Category:20th-century Australian women novelists Category:20th-century Australian essayists Category:21st-century Australian novelists Category:21st-century Australian short story writers Category:21st-century Australian women Category:21st-century Australian essayists Category:ALS Gold Medal winners Category:Australian feminist writers Category:Australian poets Category:Australian women short story writers Category:Australian women poets Category:Australian women essayists Category:People from the Riverina Category:University of Sydney alumni Category:Writers from New South Wales Category:Australian women memoirists