Craig Silvey Bio

Craig Silvey grew up on an orchard in Dwellingup, a small town in timber and fruit-growing country in south-west Western Australia.

His father was an industrial arts teacher and his mother a teacher-librarian.

It is the kind of regional upbringing that fed directly into his fiction: small-town dynamics, moral complexity, and the specific weight of growing up somewhere that is both close-knit and claustrophobic.

He wrote his first novel, Rhubarb, at the age of 19.

Rhubarb was published by Fremantle Arts Centre Press in 2004.

In 2005, Silvey was named one of The Sydney Morning Herald’s Best Young Novelists, and Rhubarb was selected as the inaugural book for the ‘One Book’ series of events at the 2005 Perth International Arts Festival, also being included in the national ‘Books Alive’ campaign.

In 2007, Silvey wrote The World According to Warren, a children’s picture book starring the guide dog from Rhubarb, illustrated by Sonia Martinez and published by Fremantle Arts Centre Press.

Jasper Jones, his second novel, arrived in 2009 and changed the scale of his career entirely.

It was completed in early 2008 with the aid of an Australia Council for the Arts New Work Grant.

Set in a small Australian town in the 1960s, the novel opens with the feral 14-year-old Jasper Jones seeking the help of 13-year-old narrator Charlie Bucktin to cover up a murder until he can find who is responsible, part murder mystery, part coming-of-age story.

The novel won the Australian Book Industry Awards Book of the Year, the Western Australian Premier’s Book Awards fiction prize, and two Indie Awards (Book of the Year and Fiction), and was shortlisted and longlisted for a range of national and international prizes, including the Miles Franklin Award, the Dylan Thomas Prize, and the Dublin Literary Award.

The novel was also selected by the American Library Association as ‘Best Fiction for Young Adults’ in their 2012 list.

According to the *Sydney Morning Herald*, *Jasper Jones* sold more than 600,000 copies, with two-thirds of those sold in Australia.

The novel has been described by academics as conforming “to the conventions of Australian Gothic, which projects contemporary experience onto dysfunctional families in small, remote towns… where young protagonists encounter violence or death, and where outsiders are punished for their difference.”

 Silvey himself has cited Mark Twain and Harper Lee as writers whose warm, regional American voices he found transferable to the Australian condition, a comparison *Jasper Jones* invites readily, with its 1960s setting, its moral coming-of-age plot, and its unflinching look at racism and social ostracism.

Jasper Jones was adapted by Kate Mulvany into a stage play, which was shortlisted for two Helpmann Awards, three Green Room Awards, two Sydney Theatre Awards, and the NSW Premier’s Prize for Playwriting.

The novel was also adapted into a 2017 film directed by Rachel Perkins, starring Levi Miller, Hugo Weaving, and Toni Collette.

After Jasper Jones, Silvey published the novella The Amber Amulet, which he adapted into a stage play the following year, and scripted The Prospector, a contemporary western film directed by Rachel Perkins.

His third novel, Honeybee, arrived in 2020, eleven years after Jasper Jones.

This coming-of-age novel follows transgender fourteen-year-old Sam Watson, assigned male at birth, as they slowly work on becoming who they really are. Sam’s life takes a major turn when they meet Vic at a place where both have decided to end their lives.

The novel deals with drug use, criminality, suicide, domestic violence, and sexual identity, doing so in an empathetic manner free from sensationalism.

Honeybee was the winner of the 2021 Indie Book Awards Book of the Year in Fiction.

It was also named the Dymocks Book of the Year and made the shortlist for Literary Fiction Book of the Year at the ABIA Awards in 2021. At the ABA Booksellers’ Choice Awards it won Adult Fiction Book of the Year.

In 2022, Silvey published Runt, a children’s novel that was later adapted into both a film and a stage play.

He subsequently published a sequel, Runt and the Diabolical Dognapping.

Silvey has twice been named one of the Best Young Australian Novelists by The Sydney Morning Herald.

He is also the singer and songwriter for the indie pop-rock band The Nancy Sikes.

Legal Matter (2026)

This profile would be incomplete without noting a significant and serious development.

In January 2026, Silvey was arrested and charged with producing, distributing, and two counts of possessing child exploitation material. He pleaded guilty to one count of possession and distribution in May 2026 and, released on home bail, is due to be sentenced on 22 October 2026.

Following the guilty plea, Fremantle Press announced it would cease promoting Silvey’s works. Allen & Unwin stated it had paused the sale, distribution, and promotion of his work and would be reviewing next steps. Major Australian booksellers Dymocks, Readings, and QBD removed his books from sale on their websites.

In Western Australia, Minister for Education Sabine Winton confirmed that a temporary ban on Silvey’s books being used as texts in public schools would be made permanent.