Jacqueline Frances Kent (born 1947) is an Australian journalist, biographer and non-fiction writer. She is also known as Jacquie Kent, the name she used when writing young adult fiction in the 1990s and sometimes writes as Frances Cook.[1][2]

Career

Kent was born in Sydney in 1947 and later moved to Adelaide, returning to Sydney to a position with the Australian Broadcasting Commission following graduation with an Arts degree.[3]

Kent wrote her first book, Out of the Bakelite Box: The Heyday of Australian Radio, while working as a freelance editor. Published in 1983 by Angus & Robertson, it was described by Maurice Dunlevy in The Canberra Times: "This popular social history of Australian radio after World War II is a classic piece of book journalism" and "a buzz from beginning to end".[4] In 1985 she curated an exhibition called "On Air" for the National Film and Sound Archive.[5]

She was appointed to the judging panel for the National Short Story of the Year competition for 1984[6] and 1985.[7]

In 1985 she met Kenneth Cook, subject of her 2019 memoir, Beyond Words, and author of Wake in Fright. They married and were together until his sudden death in April 1987.[8][9]

Kent is a frequent contributor to and book reviewer for Australian publications, including Australian Book Review, Meanjin, The Weekend Australian, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.[1] She has contributed five biographies to the Australian Dictionary of Biography.[10]

In 2007 Kent was awarded a Doctorate of Creative Arts from the University of Technology Sydney for her thesis, "Artistry Under Oath: Biography and the life story of Hephzibah Menuhin".[11] The following year it was published by Viking as An Exacting Heart.[12]

Awards and recognition

Book awards

• A Certain Style
  • National Biography Award, winner, 2002[13]
  • Nita Kibble Literary Award, winner, 2002[14]
  • New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards Douglas Stewart Prize for Non-Fiction, shortlisted, 2002[15]
• An Exacting Heart
  • The Age Book of the Year Award, Non-Fiction Prize, shortlisted, 2008[1]
  • Queensland Premier's Literary Awards, Best Non-Fiction Book and Best History Book, shortlisted, 2008[16]
  • Nita Kibble Literary Award, winner, 2009[14]
  • New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards, Douglas Stewart Prize for Non-Fiction and Community Relations Commission Award, shortlisted, 2009[17]
  • Festival Awards for Literature (SA), Award for Non-Fiction, shortlisted, 2010[1]
  • The Australian Historical Association Awards, Magarey Medal for Biography, shortlisted, 2010[18]
• Beyond Words: A Year with Kenneth Cook
  • National Biography Award, shortlisted, 2020[19]

Fellowships

• Beatrice Davis Editorial Fellowship, 1994[1]
• Hazel Rowley Literary Fellowship
  • shortlisted, for a biography of Robert Helpmann, 2016[20]
  • winner, for a biography of Vida Goldstein, 2018[21]

Works

Biography and memoir

• A Certain Style: Beatrice Davis, a Literary Life, Viking, 2001
• An Exacting Heart: The Story of Hephzibah Menuhin, Viking, 2008
• The Making of Julia Gillard, Viking, 2009
• Take Your Best Shot: The Prime Ministership of Julia Gillard, Penguin, 2013
• Beyond Words: A Year with Kenneth Cook, University of Queensland Press, 2019
• Vida: A Woman For Our Time, Penguin, 2020

Non-fiction

• Out of the Bakelite Box: The Heyday of Australian Radio, Angus & Robertson, 1983
• In the Half Light: Life as a Child in Australia 1900-1970, Angus & Robertson, 1988

Young adult fiction

• Angel Claws, I Love You, Puffin, 1992
• Heartbreak High, 1998
• Making Up, Breaking Up, ABC Books, 1998
• Love, Hate, ABC Books, 1998
• Secrets and Lies, ABC Books, 1999
• Tough Call, ABC Books, 1999

References