David Owen Kelly

David Owen Kelly

David Owen Kelly is a memoir writer and author of ‘Fantastic Street’ (Picador, 2003), ‘State of Origin’ (Puncher & Wattmann, 2019), and ‘Host City’ (Puncher & Wattmann, 2024). ‘Host City’ is hybrid memoir/dystopian fiction set in Sydney in the mid 80s as HIV/AIDS, and the Grim Reaper, cut a swathe: “These are the days of strange rumours. Talk you can catch the gay plague from kissing or from a mosquito bite. Talk of the government building a wall around ‘Darlo’ to keep the plague contained. Talk of old Quarantine stations around Australia being reopened, of the army being used to round up all the poofters. Bashings increase tenfold and you’re dead meat if you don’t have someone to watch your back.” Kelly also writes short stories and essays. His work has appeared in Best Australian Stories, The Lifted Brow, and The Monthly. David lives in Newcastle, New South Wales, with Jason.