Malla Nunn
Malla Nunn (born 1963) is a Swaziland-born Australian screenwriter, film director and author. Her works include the murder mysteries A Beautiful Place to Die and Let the Dead Lie, as well as the award-winning young adult novel, When the Ground Is Hard.
Malla Nunn
- Name
- Malla Nunn
- Born
- 1963
- Birthplace
- Swaziland
- Education
- University of Western Australia
- Awards
- 12 awards
- Nationality
- Australia
- Occupation
- writer · screenwriter · novelist · film director
- Languages
- English
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wikidata · Q1887476 · wikipedia · Malla Nunn
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Institutions cited
Deutsche Nationalbibliothek
Complete reading chain (JSON)In this article
Key facts
Key facts
• Name — Malla Nunn • Born — 1963 • Birthplace — Swaziland • Language — English • Education — University of Western Australia • Notable Works — Emmanuel Cooper series • Awards — 12 awards • Genre — Crime fiction Young Adult fiction • Years Active — 2008–present
Documentary record
Malla Nunn, a writer and film director, was born in 1963 in Swasiland. The birth is recorded by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek.
Private life
Private life
Nunn was born in Swaziland in 1963 and moved to Perth with her parents in the 1970s. She attended the University of Western Australia graduating with a B.A. with a double major in English and History. She completed a M.A. in Theatre Studies at Villanova University in Philadelphia. While in America she met her husband-to-be and they live with their two children in Sydney.
Career
Career
Nunn wrote and directed several short films including the documentary Servant of the Ancestors in 1998 which screened at several festivals. It won Best Documentary Silver Images, Pan African, Zanzibar Film Festival, 2000. Her first book A Beautiful Place to Die was published in 2008. It is the first instalment in the Emmanuel Cooper series of novels, set in South Africa in the beginning of the apartheid era.
Documentary record
According to the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek, the recorded place of activity of Malla Nunn is Sydney.
Crime fiction
Crime fiction
Emmanuel Cooper series • A Beautiful Place to Die (2008) • Let the Dead Lie (2010) • Silent Valley (2012) also known as Blessed are the Dead • Present Darkness (2014) Other • Contributor to If I Tell You... I'll Have to Kill You (Michael Robotham editor) (2013)
Young adult fiction
Young adult fiction
• When the Ground Is Hard (2019) • Sugar Town Queens (2022)
Awards
• 2009 Winner Davitt Award – Best Adult Novel – A Beautiful Place to Die • 2011 nominated Ned Kelly Awards for Crime Writing – Best Novel – Let the Dead Lie • Highly Commended – Ellis Peters Historical Crime Awards – Let the Dead Lie • 2013 shortlisted Davitt Award – Best Adult Crime Novel – Silent Valley • 2013 shortlisted Ned Kelly Awards for Crime Writing – Best Fiction – Silent Valley • 2013 nominated Edgar Allan Poe Awards – Best Paperback Original – Blessed are the Dead (Silent Valley) • 2015 shortlisted Ned Kelly Awards – Best Adult Crime Novel – Present Darkness • 2015 shortlisted Davitt Award – Adult Fiction – Present Darkness • 2019 winner LA Times Book Prize – Young Adult – When the Ground Is Hard • 2020 winner Bank Street Children's Book Committee Josette Frank Award, Best Book of the Year with "Outstanding Merit" – When the Ground Is Hard • 2020 shortlisted Children's Book Council of Australia Children's Book of the Year Award: Older Readers – When the Ground Is Hard • 2020 shortlisted Davitt Award – Best Young Adult crime novel • 2022 shortlisted Children's Book Council of Australia Children's Book of the Year Award: Older Readers – Sugar Town Queens
Text attribution
Licensing
Text attribution
Part of the biographical narrative on this page reuses licensed material. Its origin, revision and licence are recorded here.
The biographical narrative on this page is based on the Wikipedia article Malla Nunn, revision 1371366058 (EN edition), by its contributors. VALÉORINE has edited that text and built its own documentary record around it. The reused material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0, and this page's reuse of it is offered under the same licence. Everything else on this page — the chronology, the holdings, the evidence, the plates and the connections — is VALÉORINE's own record. Sources and licences.
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1."Malla Nunn". babelio.com (in French). Retrieved 16 July 2025.
- 2.Panmacmillan. About Malla Nunn.
- 3.Malla Nunn. Malla Nunn Simon & Schuster Page. Authors.simonandschuster.com.
- 4.Malla Nunn comes to town 13 September 2013. The Inverell Times.
- 5.Malla Nunn Biography. Book Browse.
- 6.Servant of the Ancestors 1998. Screen Australia.
- 7.Australian Broadcasting Corporation. art + soul Jo-anne McGowan Producer.
- 8.A Beautiful Place to Die An Emmanuel Cooper Mystery. Simon & Schuster.
- 9.Shortlist for the 2013 Davitt Awards. Aust Crime Fiction.
- 10.Mystery Writers of America 2013 Awards. The Edgars [Mystery Writers of America].
- 11.Announcing the 2015 Ned Kelly Awards Shortlist. Aust Crime Fiction.
- 12.Keeping up with the 2015 Davitt Awards – Adult Fiction. Aust Crime Fiction.
- 13.'When the Ground is Hard' wins LA Times Book Prize for YA. Books+Publishing. 2020-04-22.
- 14.Hare, Peter. Past Winners. Bank Street College of Education.
- 15.Best Children's Books of the Year Archive. Bank Street College of Education.
- 16.CBCA Awards 2020 shortlists announced. Books+Publishing. 2020-03-31.
- 17.Davitt Awards 2020 shortlists announced. Books+Publishing. 2020-07-17.
- 18.CBCA 2022 Book of the Year shortlists announced. Books+Publishing. 2022-03-30.
References
Citations
References
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Secondary witnessreference work
Secondary witness
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 29 August 2026.
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