Janette Turner Hospital (née Turner) (born 12 November 1942) is an Australian-born novelist and short story writer who has lived most of her adult life in Canada or the US, principally Boston (Massachusetts), Kingston (Ontario) and Columbia (South Carolina).
Turner was born in Melbourne and grew up in Queensland. She studied at the University of Queensland and Kelvin Grove Teachers College, gaining a BA in 1965. She holds an MA from Queen's University, Canada, 1973,
Her books are published in multiple translations.
Turner Hospital also teaches literature and creative writing and has been writer-in-residence at universities in Australia, Canada, England and the US (MIT, Boston University, Colgate and the University of South Carolina).
She is currently Visiting Writer-in-Residence in the MFA program at Columbia University.
Turner Hospital was awarded an honorary D.Litt from the University of Queensland, Australia, for "services to Australian Literature." She has won a number of international literary awards, including the Steele Rudd Award for Best Collection of Short Stories, 2012. She was also a finalist (one of five) for Prime Minister's Literary Award for Fiction and for the Melbourne AGE Book of the Year Award for Fiction.