Rosalie Ham

Rosalie Ham was born in the rural province of Jerilderie, Australia. Her father was a farmer, and Ham enjoyed an active childhood and spent a lot of time outside helping on the farm. After finishing school, Ham traveled abroad before returning to Australia to study at Deakin University in Victoria. Ham studied drama and literature but fell in love with fiction during her studies. Ham then took a job in a care home, where she worked until 2005. Ham wrote her first novel, The Dressmaker, in 1996 while she was participating in a writer’s course. She wrote part of the novel as an assignment for her course but she was inspired by the story and wanted to continue. The Dressmaker was published in 2000 and was turned into a film, starring Kate Winslet, in 2015. Ham has since published three more novels, Summer at Mount Hope, There Should Be More Dancing, and The Year of the Farmer. Like The Dressmaker, these novels deal with social relationships and rural life in Australia. Ham lives in Melbourne with her husband, where she teaches literature at the University of Melbourne.