Judith Wright (1) (1915–2000)
Author of Collected Poems, 1942-1985
For other authors named Judith Wright, see the disambiguation page.
About the Author
Born and reared in the pastoral country of New South Wales, Judith Wright returned to this area during World War II, after attending the University of Sydney and traveling in Europe. It was a significant homecoming, for she rediscovered her heritage and put that rediscovery into poetry. She wrote show more about the beautiful region known as New England, those who peopled it---both the descendants of white settlers and the Aborigines. Her first book, The Moving Image, appeared in 1946, and was enthusiastically received, the poems admired for their lyricism and honesty. Like other writers emerging at this time, she employed Australian materials in a new way, no longer seeing them in a literal sense. Wright continued to publish poetry for the next 30 years, 14 or so volumes in all, as well as making important contributions as a critic and anthologist. Although her early poems are still admired, often anthologized in Australia and abroad, the later work has faded. Turning away from poetry in recent years, Wright has written extensively about the environment and the treatment of Aboriginals, and has also become an articulate public defender of these causes. Her book about white Australia's destruction of Aborigines, The Cry for the Dead (1981), stresses the vacuum that the disappearing Aboriginal culture has left both in nature and Australian society, and reveals the guilt felt by white Australians aware of the genocide practiced by earlier generations. Even though Bruce Bennett, one of Wright's critics, admits that her poetry has gone "off the boil," he sees this as "a temporary phenomenon" and believes that the "informing ecological vision so deeply rooted in her work since her first book of poems, The Moving Image, is ever more urgently relevant." (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Image credit: Photo courtesy of Judith Wright Centre of Contemporary Arts
www.judithwrightcentre.com.au
Works by Judith Wright
The poet's pen 5 copies
Woman to Man 5 copies
Australian Poetry, 1948 3 copies
The two fires 2 copies
Australian bird poems 2 copies
Grace, and other poems 1 copy
Legend {short story} 1 copy
The gateway 1 copy
Selected Poems 1 copy
Associated Works
The Making of a Poem: A Norton Anthology of Poetic Forms (2000) — Contributor — 1,464 copies, 9 reviews
Another English: Anglophone Poems from Around the World (Poets in the World) (2014) — Contributor — 11 copies
Goodbye to Romance: Stories by New Zealand and Australian Women Writers, 1930-1988 (1989) — Contributor — 10 copies
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Birthdate
- 1915-05-31
- Date of death
- 2000-06-25
- Gender
- female
- Education
- University of Sydney
- Occupations
- poet
secretary
statistician
clerk - Organizations
- Wildlife Preservation Society of Queensland
- Awards and honors
- Australian Living Treasure
- Relationships
- Coombs, H. C. (love affair)
- Nationality
- Australia
- Birthplace
- Armidale, New South Wales, Australia
- Places of residence
- Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
Braidwood, New South Wales, Australia - Place of death
- Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia
- Associated Place (for map)
- Australia
Members
Reviews
Reminiscence
I was born into a coloured country;
spider-webs in dew on feathered grass,
mountains blue as wrens,
valleys cupping sky in like a cradle,
christmas-beetles winged with buzzing opal;
finches, robins, gang-gangs, pardalotes
tossed the blossom in its red-streaked trees…….
(extract from poem by Judith Wright)
I have known of Judith Wright for the past 15 years, through the benefaction of her 100 acre property to ANU, however, after a recent visit to the National Library of Australia I show more decided to buy this wonderful little collection of her bird poems. Beautifully illustrated from items in the National Library’s Picture Collection, it is a treat to read and a treasure to cherish.
Avaliable here show less
I was born into a coloured country;
spider-webs in dew on feathered grass,
mountains blue as wrens,
valleys cupping sky in like a cradle,
christmas-beetles winged with buzzing opal;
finches, robins, gang-gangs, pardalotes
tossed the blossom in its red-streaked trees…….
(extract from poem by Judith Wright)
I have known of Judith Wright for the past 15 years, through the benefaction of her 100 acre property to ANU, however, after a recent visit to the National Library of Australia I show more decided to buy this wonderful little collection of her bird poems. Beautifully illustrated from items in the National Library’s Picture Collection, it is a treat to read and a treasure to cherish.
Avaliable here show less
A collection of stories relating to, as the title suggests, the Nature of Love, but also touching on the relationships between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians, and their relationship to the Australian land.
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Awards
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Statistics
- Works
- 48
- Also by
- 7
- Members
- 657
- Popularity
- #38,399
- Rating
- 3.9
- Reviews
- 3
- ISBNs
- 111
- Languages
- 3
- Favorited
- 3