Luke Devenish is a novelist, screenwriter and playwright. He lives with his partner and pets in the historic town of Castlemaine, in the heart of the beautiful Goldfields region of Victoria, Australia. He is as passionate about gardening as he is about writing. Originally from Western Australia, he grew up in the Perth Hills where he attended Eastern Hills Senior High School.
Luke’s ‘Empress of Rome’ historical fiction novels are an international sensation. Book 1, Den of Wolves, was first published in Australia and New Zealand in September 2008, before being translated and published in Spain and Serbia. Russian and Turkish translated editions will appear later in 2010 and Den of Wolves will go on sale in the United States and Canada in June.
Book 2, Nest of Vipers, was published in Australia and New Zealand in April 2010, and will go on sale in the United States and Canada in September 2010.
Before ‘Empress of Rome’, Luke was well known for his television work with the iconic Australian soap opera Neighbours. From 2001 to the end of 2007 he held key creative roles on the long-running drama including Script Producer, Story Editor and Supervising Script Editor. Luke oversaw 1,500 episode scripts for the internationally broadcast serial, creating dozens of much loved characters and long-running storylines. He represented Neighbours at the National Television Awards in London and spoke about its ongoing success at drama industry conferences in Cologne and Amsterdam. He also appeared in a series of behind-the-scenes programs about the show made for BBC 3. Before joining Neighbours, Luke was Script Executive on Something in the Air and, as Assistant Commissioning Editor for Drama with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, he worked in the writing and development of SeaChange, RAW FM and others. He has also written for Home & Away.
Luke Devenish is also a playwright. Working at Melbourne’s St Martins Youth Arts Centre in the late 80s and early 90s, Luke’s plays were regularly staged for the Melbourne Fringe Festival. Productions of his work then went on to be commissioned by Melbourne’s Playbox Theatre, the Adelaide Festival, the Sydney Festival, the West Australian Academy of Performing Arts and the National Institute for Dramatic Arts, among others. Luke has recently returned to the theatre, adapting (with Louise Fox) Dario Fo’s Elizabeth: Almost By Chance a Woman for Melbourne’s Malthouse Theatre in April 2010.
Luke graduated from Curtin University’s creative writing stream in the mid-80s, studying fiction under renowned novelists Elizabeth Jolley and Tim Winton. In 2008 he appeared in an ABC TV documentary, IOU Elizabeth Jolley, where he spoke about his creative debt to the late author. Luke is now a lecturer himself, teaching screenwriting for the Australian Film Television & Radio School and the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology University.
Luke Devenish is as passionate about gardening as he is about the Empress of Rome books. In November 2008 he opened to the public his beautiful garden in central Victoria, Australia, where he took the opportunity to sign readers' books.
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