UTS and the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences were greatly saddened to learn of the recent passing of Dr Gabrielle Carey.
An esteemed author and academic, Gabrielle taught creative writing in the faculty for fifteen years until 2020.
Early in her literary career she made a great impact upon readers with her novel Puberty Blues (co-authored with Kathy Lette), a book that has continued to have relevance for younger generations and is now considered a contemporary classic.
In later years Gabrielle developed a reputation as a memoirist and biographer of much distinction, with books such as her study of the Australian author Randolph Stow, Moving Among Strangers, winning the prestigious Prime Minister's Award for nonfiction in 2014.
Her most recent book was Only Happiness Here, a biography of the once famous yet now forgotten author Elizabeth Von Arnim.
Gabrielle’s former students remember her inspiring teaching, mentoring and writing. Her former colleagues within the faculty remember her with great fondness.
We would like to express our deepest condolences to her family and close friends during this sad and difficult time.
Debra Adelaide,
UTS Associate Professor, Creative Writing
Gabrielle's friend and colleague
"Writing nine books in all, Gabrielle has essentially bequeathed her readers one long extended autobiography, which not only demonstrates how to examine a life with grace as well as candour, but also how the genre of life-writing may be constantly refreshed."
Debra Adelaide (Gabrielle's lifelong friend, author and fellow UTS creative writing teacher)
Gabrielle Carey: Writing Puberty Blues was just the beginning; SMH, 10 May 2023.
"Dr Carey not only wrote her own books, but she paid it forward by fostering the next generation of writers, including myself."
Mawunyo Gbogbo (ABC journalist and Gabrielle's former UTS creative writing student)
Puberty Blues co-author Gabrielle Carey dies, aged 64; ABC News, 5 May 2023.