The Glass Canoe

David Neil Ireland AM (1927-2022) was an Australian novelist renowned for his existential explorations of working-class lives, drawing from his diverse pre-writing careers including oil refinery work that inspired his breakthrough novel The Unknown Industrial Prisoner (1971 Miles Franklin Award). He won the prestigious Miles Franklin Award three times—for The Glass Canoe (1976) and A Woman of the Future (1979)—one of only four Australian authors to achieve this feat, alongside recognition as a Member of the Order of Australia (1981). The Conversation