Draft:Paul Dalgarno

Paul Dalgarno is a Scottish Australian author and journalist. He has written novels, memoir and non-fiction. His novel A Country of Eternal Light   was shortlisted for The Age Book of the Year Award and The Readings New Australian Fiction Prize in 2023.

Life and career

Paul Dalgarno was born in Aberdeen, Scotland, on 19 October 1975. He left school at 14 with no qualifications and worked as a painter and decorator apprentice and mechanical engineer before returning to study at the University of Aberdeen in 1997.

He graduated in 2001 in English and Hispanic Studies, before moving to Glasgow to study Journalism at the University of Strathclyde in 2004.

Dalgarno worked as a journalist with The Sunday Herald in Scotland from 2006 to 2010, specialising in features, reportage and celebrity interviews.

On emigrating to Australia in 2010 he worked as a Launch Editor and Deputy Editor of The Conversation.

His first book, And You May Find Yourself, a memoir about emigrating to Australia with his heavily pregnant wife and one-year-old son, was published in 2015.

Personal life

Dalgarno has lived in Chile, Spain and, since 2010, in Australia. He met his wife Jessica while both were living and working in Italy in 2002.

Dalgarno has two sons.

Reception and honours

Dalgarno's novel A Country of Eternal Light was shortlisted for The Age Book of the Year and the Readings New Australian Fiction Prize in 2023. The novel was published in Australia by HarperCollins and in the UK by Birlinn. The Herald (UK) said the novel 'may be the most moving book you'll read all year' ' while ArtsHub (Australia) described the novel as 'culminating in a conclusion capable of cracking a reader in two'. '.

Style and themes

Dalgarno's work spans auto-fiction, narrative non-fiction and fiction. Polyamory, family, fatherhood, motherhood, women, children, emigration, displacement, grief, death, music and relationships are among the prominent themes in his books.

Bibliography

• And You May Find Yourself '' (2015)

• Poly '' (2020)

• A Country of Eternal Light '' (2023)

• Prudish Nation '' (2023)

•''[https://www.booksandpublishing.com.au/articles/2024/01/17/245527/harpercollins-acquires-dalgarno-novel-2/#:~:text=HarperCollins%20has%20acquired%20ANZ%20rights,Martin%20Shaw%20of%20Shaw%20Literary. The Travelling Library]  (2026)