Publisher details

Author: Georgina Arnott
Publisher: UWA Publishing
Genre: Biography and Memoir
Released: 01 September, 2016
ISBN: 9781742588216

The Unknown Judith Wright

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Synopsis

Judith Wright (1915–2000) remains a giant figure within Australian art, culture and politics. Her 1946 collection of poetry, The Moving Image, revolutionised Australian poetry. She helped to establish the modern Australian environmental movement and was a key player in early campaigns for Aboriginal land rights. A friend and confidante of artists, writers, scholars, activists and policy makers – she remains an inspiration to many. And yet, as Georgina Arnott is able to show in this major new work, the biographical picture we have had of this renowned poet-activist has been very much a partial one.This book presents a more human figure than we have previously seen, and concentrates on Wright’s younger years. New material allows us to hear, directly, thrillingly, the feisty voice of a young Judith Wright and forces us to reconsider the woman we thought we knew.

About the author

Georgina Arnott

Georgina Arnott is a Research Assistant in the History Program at Monash University (2013–2017). Her research interests include biography and autobiography, particularly the representation of women and colonial history in these texts, and Australian cultural history. Her first book, The Unknown Judith Wright, is an early-life biography of one of Australia’s most well-known poets and public intellectuals, and will be published by UWAP in 2016.Since 2015 Georgina has worked on Dr Charlotte Greenhalgh’s project Researching Ourselves, investigating twentieth-century Melbourne poverty surveys and the women who were employed to conduct them.She has a PhD in History (2013) and an MA in Literary Studies (2008), both from the University of Melbourne. She has taught in Australian cultural and literary studies at Swinburne and Victoria universities, and has had a number of articles and book reviews published in Australian journals.