Suneeta Peres da Costa

Born in Sydney ~ on Gadigal Country of the Eora Nation ~ to parents of Goan origin, Suneeta Peres da Costa writes fiction, non-fiction, plays and poetry. Her most recent book, a novella, Saudade (Giramondo, 2018; Transit Books USA & Canada, 2019), was shortlisted for the 2019 Australian Prime Minister’s Literary Awards, the 2020 Adelaide Festival of Literature and the 2020 Tournament of Books (USA). An earlier novel, Homework, was published internationally by Bloomsbury, translated into German by Rowohlt and shortlisted for the Nita Dobbie Literary Award. Her plays for stage and radio include The Art of Straying, Estranged Muse, Water, Fire, Watermark, I am an Island, Angelina’s Song and Children See Everything.

Suneeta has received awards, fellowships and residencies from the Literature Board of the Australia Council, Asialink Arts, The Copyright Agency, The Corporation of Yaddo, MacDowell, Create NSW, the Ian Reed Foundation, Varuna – The Writers’ House, the Valparaiso Foundation and the Marten Bequest. She was a Fulbright Postgraduate Scholar to the USA, where she completed a Master of Fine Arts in Writing at Sarah Lawrence College. Over the years, she has worked with the National Gallery of Victoria, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, the University of Technology, Sydney, the National Museum of Australia, Sydney Review of Books, Meanjin, Southerly, Mascara Literary Review and Peril, among other organisations.

Committed to the arts as a vehicle for social and ecological justice, equity and diversity, Suneeta is currently a management committee member of PEN Sydney.