Peter Carey
Peter Carey was born on May 7, 1943, in Bacchus Marsh, Victoria;
Australia. His father owned a car dealership in town. Nothing of note
happened with Carey during his childhood. He attended school and did
fairly well. He then enrolled at Monash University in Melbourne. He
majored in chemistry and zoology. However, after a car accident and a
lack of interest in his studies he decided to drop out of college.
After dropping out of college, Carey began working in the advertising
business. This was where he first got his taste for writing. He had
several mentors during this time that helped him become a very sought
after advertising writer. After work and on weekends he would write
fiction, but did not have success in seeing anything published for a
long time. He wrote five novels; all were rejected. The only publishing
credit he received was for a short story that appeared in Under Twenty:
An Anthology, in 1966, and another short story in Australian Letters in
1967.
Carey, undeterred by the lack of publication for his novels, continued
to write. He was able to publish a few short stories, again, but no luck
with his novels. His actual first book published was a collection of
short stories called, The Fat Man. With this success he saw a bit more
by publishing more short stories and, producing another collection of
short stories entitled, War Crimes, and also finally breaking through
with a published novel called, Bliss.
Carey currently lives in New York City where he advises for Masters of
Fine Arts programs.
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