Nikki Gemmell (born 17 November 1966)"Nikki Gemmell", Babelio (in French) is an Australian novelist and journalist. She is also a cultural commentator, and since 2026 the chief film critic for The Australian. She resides in Sydney, Australia.
Education
Gemmell was born in Wollongong, New South Wales, and attended Kincoppal-Rose Bay school, Sydney, on a scholarship. She graduated from the University of Technology Sydney with a master's degree in writing.
Career Journalism Gemmell began her career as a radio journalist for ABC Radio and the BBC World Service.Healy, Madeline: Nikki Gemmell changes tact in The Book of Rapture, The Courier-Mail, 27 June 2009. Retrieved 22 July 2009.
For 14 years, she wrote a weekly column for The Weekend Australian, which earned her the 2022 Walkley Award for commentary, analysis, opinion, and critique.
In January 2026, Gemmell concluded her tenure as a columnist to take on the role of chief film critic for The Australian.
Books Gemmell is the author of fourteen works of fiction and seven non-fiction books.
Her best-known work is the 2003 novel The Bride Stripped Bare, an explicit exploration of female sexuality originally published anonymously. Gemmell was identified publicly as the author before publication.Interview transcript: Nikki Gemmell, Enough Rope with Andrew Denton, ABC TV, 28 July 2005. The book went on to become a worldwide publishing sensationNikki Gemmell , Melbourne Writers Festival, 2009 and the best-selling book by an Australian author in 2003.Bookmarks by Jason Steger, The Age, 31 January 2004 In 2022, it was named as one of the 25 best Australian novels of the past 25 years.
In 1999 Cleave was shortlisted in the Fiction category of the Queensland Premier's Literary Awards."Premier releases shortlist", The Courier-Mail, 22 September 1999 Four books by Gemmell, Shiver, Cleave, The Bride Stripped Bare and The Book of Rapture, made the longlist of "Favourite Australian Novels" as chosen by readers of the Australian Book Review."Favourite Australian Novels of the 21st Century", Australian Book Review, February 2010
She has also published two series of books for children. One of these, The Kensington Reptilarium, was shortlisted for an Australian Book Industry Award in the category of Book of the Year for Older Children.
Gemmell's writing often utilises a second-person narrative, a style that has garnered both critical and popular acclaim. In 2007, the French literary magazine Lire included her in its list of the fifty most important writers in the world – those it believed would have a significant influence on the literature of the 21st century.Lessing's royal flush, Sunday Tasmanian, 21 October 2007 In France she has also been described as a "female Jack Kerouac".Newsnight Review: Nikki Gemmell, BBC News, 10 March 2006.
Screenwriting In 2025, Gemmell's debut novel, Shiver (1997), was greenlit for a major feature film adaptation."Screen Australia Gets Behind Antarctica-Shot Drama Shiver in 46-Project Funding Round" by Melanie Goodfelow, 21 September 2025, Deadline Hollywood Co-written by Gemmell and director Robert Connolly, the screenplay is a contemporary retelling of her semi-autobiographical account of a journalist on an Antarctic expedition.
Bibliography
Adult novels Shiver (1997) Cleave (1998); published as Alice Springs in the United States (1999) Lovesong (2002) The Bride Stripped Bare (2003) The Book of Rapture (2009) With My Body (2011) I Take You (2013) The Ripping Tree (2021) Wing (2024)
For children The Luna Laboratorium (2015) The Icicle Illuminarium (2013) The Kensington Reptilarium (2013) Coco Banjo and the Super Wow Surprise (2016) Coco Banjo Has Been Unfriended (2015) Coco Banjo is Having a Yay Day (2015)
Non fiction Why You Are Australian – A Letter to My Children (2009) Pleasure: An Almanac of the Heart (2006), published as Plaisir : Un florilège du coeur in France (2011) Honestly – Notes on Life (2012) Personally – Further Notes on Life (2013) After (2017; written in response to her mother's suicide) On Quiet (2018) Dissolve (2021)
Anthologies Desire (Head of Zeus, 2016) Ed. Mariella Frostrup Just Between Us: Australian Writers Tell The Truth About Female Friendship (Pan Macmillan Australia, 2013) Ed. Maya Linden, Christie Nieman, Maggie Scott, Natalie Kon-Yu, Miriam Sved Better than Fiction: True Travel Tales from Great Fiction Writers (Lonely Planet, 2012) Ed. Don George The Divided Heart: Art and Motherhood (Red Dog Books, 2012) Ed. Rachel Power Inside Notting Hill (Umbrella Books, 2007). Ed. Miranda Davies, Sarah Anderson Some Girls Do ... My Life as a Teenager (Arena, 2006) Ed. Jacinta Tynan Come Away With Me (Bantam, 2004) Ed. Sarah Macdonald Writers on Writing (Penguin Books Australia, 2004). Ed. Roberts, Barry Mitchell, Roger Zubrinich Australian Expats: Stories from Abroad (Global Exchange, 2003) Ed. Bryan Havenhand, Anne MacGregor Gas and Air: Tales of Pregnancy, Birth and Beyond (Bloomsbury UK, 2002). Ed. Jill Dawson, Margo Daly Neverland: What Australia Might Have Been (Pluto Press, 2002). Ed. Kevin Murray My One True Love (Random House Australia, 2000). Ed. Caro Llewellyn Australian Summer Stories (Penguin Australia, 1999) Partners (HarperCollins Australia, 1999). Ed. Ross Fitzgerald, Anne Henderson
References
External links
"Encore: Nikki Gemmell's vivid life of love, grief and reinvention", Conversations radio interview with Richard Fidler and Sarah Kanowski, October 2024 "Nikki Gemmell on a life-changing year of love and grief" by Rosannah Ryan, 15 August 2015, Radio National Sunday Extra radio interview about Shiver