Kate Mulvany

Judges' comments

Mona Brand, who also produced work under her married name Alexis Fox, was a formidable playwright, an accomplished poet and a fearless social activist. It is fitting therefore, that the 2020 Mona Brand Award should go to a writer whose work encompasses unique original narratives, bold feminist adaptations and the deconstruction/reconstruction of traditional mythology. 

In her 25-year career as a writer for stage and screen, Kate Mulvany OAM has brought a vast array of stories, experiences and characters to the Australian cultural landscape.  From her acclaimed adaptation of Ruth Park's The Harp in the South trilogy for the Sydney Theatre Company, her original play The Mares for the Tasmanian Theatre Company, to her writing on Lingo Pictures’ television series Upright, Kate’s body of work is significant, wide-ranging and speaks passionately to audiences. 

Her play The Seed, written in 2006 about her family's experience of the genetic legacy of war - shone a new light on the effects of Agent Orange and saw a shift in the government's long-overdue acknowledgment of survivors. Kate has made her way as a writer from a country upbringing in rural Western Australia, through independent theatres across the country, to the ranks of one of Australia's leading dramatists onstage and onscreen.  

As an artist with a disability, Kate mentors and advises many other female writers, particularly those from isolated, rural or disadvantaged backgrounds, and encourages them to tell their own authentic stories loudly and proudly.  She has created bold, invigorating, powerful and entertaining work to a huge range of audiences and we are delighted to honour this with the Mona Brand Award.