Wright, Judith Arundell (1915 - 2000)

Judith Wright expressed her love of Australia and its people in her poetry. She was also a respected writer on poetry. Later in her life Wright was well known as a conservationist and campaigner for Aboriginal rights. Wright, a descendant of a pioneering pastoralist family, began writing poetry at the age of six for her ailing mother. At the age of 14 she became a boarder at the New England Girls School, and it was during her time there that she decided to become a poet.

After completing an Arts course at the University of Sydney, Wright worked in a variety of positions including that of research officer at Queensland University, where she helped Clem Christesen to edit Meanjin.

In 1975, Wright was the first woman appointed to the Council of Australian National University as the Governor-General's nominee. She was founder and later president of the Wildlife Preservation Society of Queensland, and member of the National Parks Association of New South Wales and the South Coast Conservation Council. Wright was a patron of many organisations including: Campaign Against Nuclear Power (Qld); Townsville Women's Shelter; Amnesty International (Vic.); Wildlife Preservation Society of Qld and the National Forests Action Council (Vic.).

In 1991, Wright became the second Australian - after Michael Thwaites in 1940 - to receive the Queen's gold medal for poetry.

Joan Williams concludes her obituary on Judith Wright in The Guardian on July 5, 2000 with:
"Judith Wright is not a romantic, but makes her judgement on changes in the economy and lifestyle, the growth of industry and the swing from country to city. In her own way she has taken a step further for us in the expression of Australian national, spiritual and environment values in her poetry."

Events

1938 - 1942	Stenographic and secretarial work in Sydney
1944 - 1948	Statistical research officer with the Queensland University
1949	Awarded a Commonwealth Literary Fund Fellowship
1949	Awarded the Grace Leven Prize from the Braidwood Historical Society
1962 - 1976	President of the Wildlife Preservation Society of Queensland
1963	Foundation council member of the Australia Society Authors (ASA)
1964 - 1972	Council member of the Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF)
1965	Awarded the Encyclopedia Britannica Prize for literature
1970	Awarded Fellow Australian Academy of Humanities (FAHA)
1972	Awarded the Grace Leven Prize from the Braidwood Historical Society
1973 - 1974	Member of the Committee of Enquiry into the National Estate
1975 - 1979	Council member of the Australian National University (ANU)
1976	Awarded the Senior Anzac Fellowship
1976	Awarded the Robert Frost Memorial Award from the Fellowship of Australian Writers (FAW)
1977 - 1979	Awarded the Senior Writers Fellowship by the Literature Board of the Australia Council
1979 - 1983	Member of the Aboriginal Treaty Committee
1980	Awarded the Alice Award by the Society of Women Writers of Australia
1980	Awarded the Order of the Golden Ark, degree of Ridder by Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands
1980	Awarded Hon. Life Member Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF)
1984	Awarded the Indian Asan World prize for poetry
1992	Awarded the Queen's Gold Medal for poetry

Friend and Colleague

• Devanney, Jean (1894 - 1962)

Sponsored

• National Foundation for Australian Women (1989 - )

Related People

• Sutherland, Margaret Ada (1897 - 1984)

  Margaret Sutherland's one-act opera 'The Young Kabbarli' was based on poetry by Judith Wright and John Shaw Neilson

Books

• Wright, Judith, The Moving Image, Meanjin Press, 1946. [ Details... ]
• Wright, Judith, Woman to Man, Angus & Robinson, 1950. [ Details... ]
• Wright, Judith, The Gateway, Angus & Robinson, 1953. [ Details... ]
• Wright, Judith, The Oxford Book of Australian Verse, Oxford University Press, 1954. [ Details... ]
• Wright, Judith, The Two Fires, Angus & Robinson, 1955. [ Details... ]
• Wright, Judith, The Generations of Men, Oxford University Press, 1955. [ Details... ]
• Wright, Judith, New Land New Language, Oxford University Press, 1956. [ Details... ]
• Wright, Judith, Kings of the Dingoes, Oxford University Press, 1956. [ Details... ]
• Wright, Judith, The Day the Mountains Played, Jacaranda-Wiley, 1959, 1976. [ Details... ]
• Wright, Judith, Range the Mountains High, Jacaranda, 1960. [ Details... ]
• Wright, Judith, Birds, Angus & Robinson, 1960. [ Details... ]
• Wright, Judith, Five Senses, Angus & Robinson, 1960. [ Details... ]
• Wright, Judith, Birds, Angus & Robinson, 1960. [ Details... ]
• Wright, Judith, Selected Poems, Angus & Robertson, 1963. [ Details... ]
• Wright, Judith, The River and the Road, Lansdowne, 1963. [ Details... ]
• Wright, Judith, Preoccupations in Australian Poetry, Oxford University Press, 1964. [ Details... ]
• Wright, Judith, The Other Half, Angus & Robertson, 1966. [ Details... ]
• Wright, Judith, The Other Half, Angus & Robertson, 1966. [ Details... ]
• Wright, Judith, The Nature of Love, Sun Books, 1966. [ Details... ]
• Wright, Judith, Collected Poems, Angus & Robertson, 1971. [ Details... ]
• Wright, Judith, Alive, Angus & Robertson, 1972. [ Details... ]
• Wright, Judith, Fourth Quarter, Angus & Robertson, 1976. [ Details... ]
• Wright, Judith, Because I was Invited, Oxford University Press, 1976. [ Details... ]
• Wright, Judith, Fourth Quarter, Limited edn, Angus & Robertson, 1977. [ Details... ]
• Wright, Judith, Charles Harpur, Oxford University Press, 1978. [ Details... ]
• Wright, Judith, The Cry for the Dead, Oxford University Press, 1981. [ Details... ]
• Wright, Judith (Editor), Witnesses of Spring: unpublished poems by John Shaw Neilson, Angus & Robertson, 1970. [ Details... ]

Documentaries

• Wright, Judith, The Coral Battleground, Nelson, 1977. [ Details... ]

Newspaper Articles

• Cadzow, Jane, 'Lines from the bush', Good Weekend, 10 January 2004, pp. 23-25. [ Details... ]

Online Resources

• Brady, Veronica, 'Judith Wright's Biography: A Delicate Balance between Trespass and Honour', in Documenting a Life Seminar, Nalional Library of Australia, National Library of Australia, Saturday 26 October 1996, http://www.nla.gov.au/events/doclife/brady.html. [ Details... ]
• Cornwell, Tony, 'Australian poet Judith Wright (1915-2000): an appreciation', in World Socialist Web Site, International Committee of the Fourth International, 31 August 2000, http://www.wsws.org/articles/2000/aug2000/wrig-a31.shtml. [ Details... ]
• Koval, Ramona (presenter) and Donisthorpe, Suzanne (Producer), 'Vale Judith Wright', in books and writing, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Friday 30/06/2000, http://www.abc.net.au/rn/arts/bwriting/stories/s143393.htm. [ Details... ]
• Papers of Judith Wright (1915- 2000), http://www.nla.gov.au/ms/findaids/5781.html. [ Details... ]
• Williams, Joan, 'Judith Wright', in The Guardian, Communist Party of Australia, July 5, 2000, http://www.cpa.org.au/garchve2/1007jw.html. [ Details... ]

See also

• Annable, Rosemary (ed.), Biographical register : the Women's College within the University of Sydney, Council of the Women's College, Sydney, 1995, 269 pp. [ Details... ]
• Arnold, John and Morris, Deirdre (eds), Monash Biographical Dictionary of 20th Century Australia, Reed Reference Publishing, Port Melbourne (Vic.), 1994, 568 pp. [ Details... ]
• Australian Science and Technology Heritage Centre, 'Where are the Women in Australian science?', 22 August 2003, http://www.austehc.unimelb.edu.au/wisa/wisa.html. [ Details... ]
• K. Diehm, 'Guide to the Papers of Craig Powell', Australian Defence Force Academy, 2000, http://www.lib.adfa.edu.au:85/web/speccoll/finding_aids/powell.html. [ Details... ]
• Lofthouse, Andrea (ed.), Who's who of Australian women, Methuen Australia, North Ryde (NSW), 1982, 504 pp. [ Details... ]
• Neto, Maryanne (researcher) (ed.), Who's who in Australia 1998, 38 edn, Information Australia Group Pty Ltd, Melbourne, 1997, 1720 pp. [ Details... ]