Lauren Aimee Curtis

Lauren Aimee Curtis was born in Sydney. She is the author of Dolores and Strangers at the Port. In 2023, she was named on Granta's Best of the Young British Novelists list. Her short fiction and essays have appeared in Granta, The White Review, and Fireflies, among other publications. She holds a PhD in Literary Studies from the University of Technology Sydney, where she wrote her dissertation on the work of Renata Adler and Elizabeth Hardwick. 

Praise for STRANGERS AT THE PORT (2023):

'This novel amazed me. It is the work of a true original' Lucie Elven

'I loved Strangers at the Port. It is deliciously spare, yet complex - a story of the past as well as a vision of the future' Sara Baume

'Lauren Aimee Curtis brings her alchemical knack to a remote island setting, recounting a story through three vantage points. Giulia and Giovanna’s acidic, beguiling accounts of their island’s rituals and lore contrast with a third teller whose logbooks fragment into feverish autobiography. Curtis’s radiant novel explores the ineffable dimensions of a place, of the past, of a person, which is precisely what I come to literature for.' Mireille Juchau

'[In] her intriguing second book... [Curtis] entices us into a mythical realm of not-quite history. [...] Strangers at the Port is both a fascinating delve into the small, personal stories sacrificed to the grander sweep of history and a provocative creation of a fable for our times. The author succeeds in conjuring the minutiae of island life, with nicely realised details such as the pumice quarry, where, 'on sunny days, the heat from the rock was like a flame licking our backs', while also creating in S something of an every-island: its change of fortune from bountiful haven to wasteland a pattern with which we will become increasingly familiar, along with the associated desperate emigration.' Emily Rhodes, Spectator  

Praise for DOLORES (2019):

'[A] taut and moody novella about desire, female power and religion. [...] Curtis skilfully narrates the eight months that follow. In beautifully distilled scenes we move between life with the eccentric and tender nuns, and Dolores's childhood. [...] In burnished prose, Curtis raises potent questions about how women control their bodies and destinies when subject to institutional forces.' Judges of the 2020 UTS Glenda Adams Award for New Writing

'Dolores is propulsive, atmospheric, wonderfully peculiar, a little dark. A dreamy hallucination.' Amina Cain       

​'We’ve all read about grooming, about how vulnerable girls are coaxed and exploited by predatory “boyfriends”. Dolores (Weidenfeld & Nicolson), a sharp and witty first novel by Australian writer Lauren Aimee Curtis, plaits together an illuminating account of the process with an irreverent after-story set in a Spanish convent.' Lucy Hughes-Hallett, New Statesman 'Books of the Year 2019'

‘Dolores reads the way a first novel should: short, lyrical, intense, and with adventurous ambition.' Nell Zink

‘Dolores is a glowing, beating heart of a book; Curtis’ sentences manage to be both mysterious and precise, creating a potent atmosphere that resonates beyond its brevity.’ Megan Hunter

‘Rich, melodic and marked by a troubling sensuality, Dolores depicts the strange pleasures a young girl might take in her body, and the perils and liberations such pleasures hold.’ Sue Rainsford, author of Follow Me To Ground

'Enigmatic [...] Curtis writes in short, stark sentences. There’s great precision to her recounting of events and to her descriptions: convent clothes smell of “mothballs, stale soap and onions”; the nuns seem “to chew the soup as if it were a piece of meat”. There’s something rather cinematic about her arm’s length approach – Dolores is observational, not explanatory. This also provides images of deadpan, physical humour: Dolores breaking eggs on to the head of a bishop who puts his face up her skirt; a novice smashing a guitar over a holier-than-thou new arrival. “Madonna! the nuns whisper.” Short and mysterious, Dolores is a compelling, one-sitting read. I craved more – of Dolores herself, of how she really feels. But Curtis writes the close-up details of life in the convent with as much intensity as the burgeoning sexuality of a young girl, and the two elements chime in a strange harmony.' Holly Williams, Observer

'The book moves between scenes from [Dolores's] life in the convent and the events that led her there, and Curtis skilfully balances both its revelations and ambiguity to aid momentum. [...] We know the convent is in the hills somewhere in Europe, but never know where, exactly. All this, rather than being frustrating, gives the story an otherworldly sheen, and the book is so well written that it makes the need for solid details feel frivolous. [...] What Dolores doesn’t hold back on is the grotesqueness of everyday life for the women at the convent. The nuns have green-yellow gunk in their eyes and bad breath. One has a large tooth that hangs out of her mouth. They smell of sweat. Another has ‘a large, round, and translucent face, like the moon’. Even the pretty one bites her nails. Focussing on these details has the possibility of slipping into cruelty, but Curtis resists doing so. By keeping the narrative tight, she’s able to put care into each sentence and this pays off with a kind of warmness that encompasses the characters in its glow. Curtis is certainly a new Australian voice to pay attention to and she is already receiving attention from overseas readers; a part of Dolores has already appeared in Granta. If you are looking for an Australian novel that embraces its uniqueness, then Dolores can’t be recommended enough.' Chris Somerville, Readings

'A succinct, intense story about a young girl who turns up at a convent and is taken in by the nuns. This atmospheric debut is a deliciously satisfying read about a girl at a critical juncture in her life.' Book Riot

'This skilfully written and disquieting novella takes a character from contemporary life, gives her a classic female problem, and places her in an almost timeless setting, and the result is a hypnotic and powerfully affecting read.' Sydney Morning Herald, 'Pick of the Week'