Wright, Judith

▪ 2001

      Australian poet and writer (b. May 31, 1915, Armidale, N.S.W.—d. June 25, 2000, Canberra, A.C.T.), published more than 50 books drawing on life in her native country, but she also developed an international reputation. Her poetry, largely written in traditional forms, showed great technical skill. Beginning in the 1960s she became prominent as a conservationist, decrying the despoliation of the land, and as an advocate, among other things, of land rights for Aboriginals. Wright's parents ran a sheep and cattle station, and she was educated at home and at the New England Girls' School in Armidale. She studied at the University of Sydney and in 1937–38 traveled in England and Europe. Returning to Australia, she helped run the family farm during World War II. She then worked as a statistician at the University of Queensland, Brisbane, where she was involved in publishing the journal Meanjin, and her poems began to appear in various magazines. From 1949 she was a lecturer at Australian universities, and in 1967 she became a tutor at the University of Queensland. Her first two volumes of poetry, which are usually considered her best, were The Moving Image (1946), devoted to the land and farm life, and Woman to Man (1949), about women and female sexuality. In 1959 she published The Generations of Men, a prose work based on the diaries of her grandfather. Preoccupations in Australian Poetry (1965) was among her critical writings, and she edited several anthologies of verse. She also wrote a number of books for children. In 1992 she was the first Australian to be awarded the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry. The first volume of her autobiography, Half a Lifetime, was published in 1999, and she was working on the second volume at the time of her death.

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▪ Australian poet

in full  Judith Arundell Wright 

born May 31, 1915, Armidale, New South Wales, Australia

died June 25, 2000, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory

      Australian poet whose verse, thoroughly modern in idiom, is noted for skillful technique.

      After completing her education at the University of Sydney, Wright worked in an advertising agency and as a secretary at the University of Queensland, where she helped publish Meanjin, a literary journal. From 1949 she lectured part-time at various Australian universities, becoming honours tutor in English at the University of Queensland at Brisbane in 1967.

      In 1945 Wright's poetry began to appear in magazines. The first of her several books of poetry, The Moving Image (1946), was followed by Woman to Man (1949), The Gateway (1953), The Two Fires (1955), The Other Half (1966), and Alive (1973). Much of her poetry was marked by restrained and lyric verse that decried materialism and outside influences on native cultures. A collection of short stories, The Nature of Love, was published in 1966, and her Collected Poems 1942–1970 in 1971. She also wrote several children's books as well as biographical essays on the Australian poet Charles Harpur (Harpur, Charles) and the Australian short-story writer Henry Lawson (Lawson, Henry). A further volume of poetry, Phantom Dwelling, was published in 1985. A noted activist, Wright campaigned for such causes as conservation, peace, and Aboriginal land rights.

Additional Reading

W.N. Scott, Focus on Judith Wright (1967); Shirley Walker, Flame and Shadow: A Study of Judith Wright's Poetry, new ed. (1996); Veronica Brady, South of My Days: A Biography of Judith Wright (1998).

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