Publishing her first novel at age 40 has not stopped Dr Janette Turner Hospital winning a string of literary awards and having her writings translated in to 12 languages in 20 countries.

Born in Melbourne in 1942, her family moved to Brisbane when she was seven. She attended Mitchelton High School before graduating with a Bachelor of Arts from UQ in 1965.

She has won many awards and honours for her work, which includes eight novels and four short story collections.

She won the Queensland Premier's Literary Award for Fiction 2003 for her latest novel, Due Preparations for the Plague, with the Times Literary Supplement calling her "one of the most powerful and innovative writers in English today".

"I look back with fond memories of my time at The University of Queensland - the activities I was involved in, the friends I made and the intellectual stimulation of those heady days," Dr Turner Hospital said.

She is not exaggerating when she describes her University days as "heady". As a 20-year-old UQ student, she met and married her husband Dr Clifford Hospital (also a UQ graduate) then jetted off to Harvard with him for his doctoral studies in 1967.

"I can still recall vividly the mixture of excitement and trepidation I felt on my first day as an undergraduate at The University of Queensland in 1961," she wrote in Graduate Contact (Winter 2003 edition) after being awarded an Honorary Doctorate by the University in 2003.

"No-one on either side of my family had ever been to university but I grew up in a household that held a great reverence for books and learning.

Dr Turner Hospital worked as a librarian in the Harvard University Library while her husband studied. The couple also had their son and daughter during this period. In 1971, the family moved to Canada where Dr Hospital had been appointed Professor at Queens University. Dr Turner Hospital completed her Master of Arts in Medieval Literature at Queens, graduating in 1973.

More adventures followed when in 1977-78, the family moved to southern India for Dr Hospital's sabbatical studies. It was here Dr Turner Hospital penned an award-winning short story entitled "Waiting" about the clash of eastern and western cultures, later expanding it in to her first published novel, The Ivory Swing.

Since that time, she has lectured at universities in Australia, Canada, the United States, England and Europe.

In 1999, she was invited to the University of South Carolina where she holds a Chair as Carolina Distinguished Professor of English. She succeeded the late James Dickey (Pulitzer Prize-winning poet; author of the novel Deliverance; and screenwriter of the 1970s movie of the same name).

Now a grandmother of five, Dr Turner Hospital divides her time between the US and her beloved Queensland.

Achievements:

• Patrick White Award for Lifetime Literary Achievement, Australia, 2003
• Queensland Premier's Literary Award for Fiction 2003 for Due Preparations for the Plague
• Oyster: New York Times' Editors' Choice and Notable Books List, 1998 finalist for Australia's Miles Franklin and National Book Awards, 1996 finalist for Canada's Trillium Award, 1996
• The Last Magician: listed in Publishers' Weekly "Best 50 Books of 1992" and "Best 12 Novels of 1992"; New York Times' "Most Notable Books of 1992" list; finalist for the Miles Franklin Award; finalist for the Trillium Award, Canada
• National Magazine Awards, Canada, l991: Gold Medal for Travel Writing (article on India, published Kingston Whig-Standard Magazine in Spring 1990)
• Isobars: finalist for the Trillium Award, Canada, 1990
• Charades: finalist for the Miles Franklin Award and the National Book Council Award, Australia, 1989
• Dislocations: winner of l988 Fiction Award, Fellowship of Australian Writers; Torgi Award, Canadian Association for the Blind, 1988
• Runner-up for National Book Award, Australia, at Adelaide Arts Festival l986, for Borderline
• Named in Canada's Best 10 Younger Writers, 1986
• The Seal Award ($50,000) for The Ivory Swing, Canada, 1982
• First Prize, Magazine Fiction, Foundation for the Advancement of Canadian Letters, 1982
• "Atlantic First" Short Story Award, The Atlantic Monthly, USA, 1978