Thomas Keneally Schepisi's "The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith" (1978) (based on his own novel) and played Father Marshall in the award-winning film "The Devil's Playground" (1976), also by Schepisi. In 1983, he was made an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO). He is an Australian Living Treasure. Keneally was a member of the Literature Board of the Australia Council from 1985 to 1988 and President of the National Book Council from 1985 to 1989. Keneally was a visiting professor at the University of California, Irvine (UCI) where he taught the graduate fiction workshop for one quarter in 1985. From 1991 to
Bill Thomas (author) in 1966, to freelance for a number of newspapers and magazines. His work focused in the areas of outdoors, travel, and human interest, and was published in Field & Stream, Woodall's Trailer Travel, Outdoor Life, The Saturday Evening Post, and many other periodicals. In 1976, Thomas received the National Geographic Award for Photography. Thomas published his first book in 1974. Bill Thomas (author) Bill Thomas (November 11, 1934 – June 3, 2009) was an American author and photojournalist, the son of William Roy Thomas and Margaret Elizabeth (Crabtree) Thomas born on the family farm near Glendale, Kentucky. Thomas reported for