Trent Dalton

Trent Dalton is an Australian award-winning journalist and literary fiction author. His work includes the award-winning Boy Swallows Universe (adapted for the stage and an upcoming Netflix series), All Our Shimmering Skies, and Love Stories, a nonfiction collection.

Trent Dalton, an acclaimed Australian journalist and literary fiction author, has etched his mark at The Weekend Australian Magazine. His writing spans both journalism and film, earning him a nomination for the 2010 AFI Best Short Fiction screenplay.

Trent Dalton was born in Ipswich, Queensland, the youngest of four sons. Early in his life, Dalton faced many challenges. Raised in Brassall, where both his mother and stepfather sold heroin and spent time in jail, he later shifted to Bracken Ridge after his mother's imprisonment.

After a year of journalism studies at the University of Southern Queensland and another at Queensland University of Technology, he started working as a journalist. He has received two United Nations of Australia Media Peace Awards.

Recommended by a QUT tutor, Dalton started as a writer for Brisbane News in 2000, later contributing as a journalist for The Courier-Mail. As of August 2021, he serves as a staff writer for The Weekend Australian Magazine.

In 2011, Dalton published Detours: Stories from the Street, a book featuring profiles of individuals he interviewed living on the street or at risk of homelessness. His literary acclaim soared with the semi-autobiographical novel "Boy Swallows Universe," longlisted for the 2019 Miles Franklin Award.

Dalton's foray into fiction extended to television, with the adaptation rights for Boy Swallows Universe secured by Netflix. The Queensland Theatre Company also transformed the novel into a play, premiering at the Brisbane Festival in September 2021.

All Our Shimmering Skies, Dalton's second novel, emerged in 2020. In 2021, he curated Love Stories, a collection drawn from interviews. His third novel, Lola in the Mirror, hit shelves in October 2023.

However, Dalton's recent work, Lola in the Mirror, has stirred controversy. While rooted in his social affairs journalism experiences, the novel has faced criticism for romanticizing homelessness and oversimplifying complex issues. Despite Dalton's charitable intentions, some argue that the novel's sentimental tone veers into dangerous territory, potentially perpetuating myths about homelessness.

Photo credit: Lyndon Mechielsen