Australia Gives Peter Carey Its Stamp of Approval

Peter Carey, prize-winning novelist and executive director of Hunter's MFA program in creative writing, has received yet another award - one that will make him a collector's item. His homeland of Australia is issuing a stamp in his honor. Actually, two stamps, one with a photo of Carey from the 1970s and another with a contemporary image.

Carey is being honored along with five other Australian authors as part of a "Living Legends" stamp series. Asked for his reaction, he said, "To be on an Australian stamp is really quite moving. There's a big part of me that really wants to be part of Australian culture."

Carey is the author of several celebrated novels, including Oscar and Lucinda, True History of the Kelly Gang and most recently Theft: A Love Story. He is one of only two novelists to have won the Booker Prize, one of the English language's highest literary honors, twice.

When a reporter asked him how he felt about being designated a "legend," Carey's reply was characteristically witty and light-hearted: "'Well, I'd say Donald Bradman [a revered Australian cricket player] was a legend, King Arthur, definitely a legend. I'm prepared to be a legend in my own lunchtime.'"