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JUDITH WRIGHT

BIOGRAPHY

• Born in Armidale, New South Wales (Australia). • Eldest child of Phillip and Ethel Wright (parents

divorced).• After early death of her mother, Wright attended

New England Girl’s School• Wright also studied philosophy, English,

Psychology, and history at the University of Sydney.• Moved to Mount Tamborine, Queensland in 1950.• She married Jack McKinney (philosopher and

novelist) in 1962.

BIOGRAPHY CONT.

• Wright became completely deaf in 1992.• Well-known for campaigning support for the Great

Barrier Reef and Fraser Island.• Advocate for the Aboriginal land rights

movement.• She died in Canberra on June 26, 2000 (85).

CAREER

• Wright’s first book of poetry, The Moving Image, was published in 1946.

• Founding member and President (1964-1976) of the Wildlife Preservation Society of Queensland.

• Second Australian to receive Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry, in 1992.

• She worked as an honors tutor in English at the University of Queensland.

• In the 1960s, she became involved in political action, including the antiwar movement, Australia’s conservationist movement, and the movement to change the treatment of the country’s Aboriginal people.

AWARDS

• 1950-Grace Leven Prize• 1964-Australia-Britannica Award• 1977-Robert Frost Memorial Award• 1984-Australian World Prize• 1992-Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry • 1994-Human Rights & Equal Opportunity

Commission Poetry Award, for Collected Poems

MAJOR WORKS

• The Moving Image • Woman to Man• The Gateway• The Two Fires• Birds• The Other Half• Magpies• Shadow

THEMES/SUBJECTS

• Australian environment• Relationships between settlers and Australians • Relationships between mankind and the

environment.• Connections with “human experience and natural

world.”• Bridging the gap between nature and man.

SOURCES

• Gilbert, Sandra M., and Susan Gubar. The Norton Anthology of Literature by Women: The

Traditions in English. 3rd ed. Vol. 2. New York: W.W. Norton &, 2007. 722. Print• Samuels, Selina. Australian Writers, 1915-1950.

Detroit: Thomson Gale, 2002. 416-27. Print.