Tom Keneally Centre
The Tom Keneally Centre was officially opened on 18 August 2011 by Professor Marie Bashir, then Governor of New South Wales. Designed to reflect the character of Tom’s original library, it retains the warmth and intimacy of a space built for storytelling.
Since opening its doors, the Tom Keneally Centre has become a refuge, a quiet pocket of the city where stories gather, and history lingers. The shelves hold books that mattered to Thomas Keneally, their margins filled with his own notes. His desk sits at the heart of the space, a reminder of the stories crafted there. Letters, research materials, and personal memorabilia surround it, each piece offering a glimpse into the mind of one of Australia’s greatest storytellers.
Writers come here. They sit. They listen. They write. Authors speak, ideas are tested, and stories begin. CBD Write-Ins, workshops, and literary exhibitions continue to fill the room with quiet creativity.
Visitors are welcome to browse the collection, settle in for a moment, and lose themselves in Keneally’s world.
The Tom Keneally Centre is a place where stories live on.
Opening Hours
Tuesdays, Thursdays & Fridays
from 10.30am – 2.30pm
Address
Level 3, 280 Pitt Street, Sydney NSW 2000
About the Tom Keneally Centre
The Sydney Mechanics’ School of Arts is proud to be the home of the Tom Keneally Centre, which holds the research collection of world-renowned author Thomas Keneally, in addition to copies of his own works and some items from his private collection of photographs and memorabilia.
The Westfield Group, headed by Frank Lowy, generously funded the construction of the Tom Keneally Centre, while the Sydney Mechanics’ School of Arts has provided the space on Level 3, furnishings and staffing on an ongoing basis.
The Tom Keneally Centre’s look and feel reflects, as much as possible, the character of Tom’s original library.
It was officially opened on 18 August 2011 by Her Excellency, Professor Marie Bashir, AC, CVO, Governor of New South Wales in August 2011.
The Tom Keneally Centre is devoted to Australian literature and history, reflecting the synergy between the SMSA and Tom Keneally’s approach to writing and to life; open access to knowledge, continued learning and social change.
About Thomas Keneally
Thomas Keneally is one of Australia’s most celebrated and enduring literary voices, a writer whose work has shaped the nation’s storytelling for more than six decades.
Born in 1935, Keneally has published over 35 novels, 18 works of non-fiction, and several plays since his debut in 1964. His writing moves between history and imagination, truth and invention, always guided by a deep moral curiosity and a profound empathy for the human condition.
He is perhaps best known internationally for Schindler’s Ark, which won the Man Booker Prize in 1982 and was later adapted into the Academy Award-winning film Schindler’s List by Steven Spielberg. But Keneally’s literary achievements go far beyond a single masterpiece.
His novels The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith, Gossip from the Forest, and Confederates were all shortlisted for the Booker Prize, while Bring Larks and Heroes and Three Cheers for the Paraclete earned him the Miles Franklin Award in consecutive years. Later works such as The Widow and Her Hero, Bettany’s Book, An Angel in Australia, and The People’s Train continued to reflect his restless intellect and unwavering compassion.
Thomas Keneally’s body of work is vast, but it is unified by one clear purpose: to illuminate the complexities of history through the lives of those who lived it. His voice remains vital, not only in Australian letters, but in the global tradition of storytelling.
As well as being a celebrated novelist, Thomas Keneally is a gifted historian whose non-fiction brings depth, empathy, and narrative force to the past.
His landmark history The Great Shame (1998) traces the story of Irish convict transportation with rare moral clarity, giving voice to individuals who endured exile, injustice, and resistance. That same sense of intimacy and scale is present in The Commonwealth of Thieves (2005), which revisits Australia’s penal origins through the experiences of Aboriginal people, convicts, and colonial officials, always with the goal of bringing history closer to the reader.
In recent years, Keneally has collaborated with his daughter Meg Keneally on the popular Monsarrat series — a collection of historical mysteries set in 19th-century Australia. Titles include The Soldier’s Curse (2016), The Unmourned (2017), The Power Game (2018), and The Ink Stain (2019).
His most recent novel, Fanatic Heart (2022), reimagines the life of Irish patriot John Mitchel, with a particular focus on his time in exile on Van Diemen’s Land. The book continues Keneally’s lifelong work of animating history through character, conflict, and conscience.
Over the course of his career, Keneally has received numerous accolades, including the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, the Royal Society of Literature Prize, the Scripter Award, the Mondello International Prize, and the 2022 ARA Historical Novel Prize for Corporal Hitler’s Pistol.
He lives in Sydney with his wife Judy and is the proud number one ticket-holder of the Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles.