Education
Her love for poetry enhanced in the school, as it gave her immense comfort and solace. This was when she decided to become a poet.
She studied philosophy, history, psychology and English, without taking a degree.
environmentalist campaigner for aboriginal land rights poet
Her love for poetry enhanced in the school, as it gave her immense comfort and solace. This was when she decided to become a poet.
She studied philosophy, history, psychology and English, without taking a degree.
Until 1944, she worked as a secretary-stenographer and clerk. From the year 1944 to 1948, she worked at the University of Queensland, St. Lucia, as the university statistician. In 1946, she made her debut in poetry, with her first book 'The Moving Image' being published. During this time, she also worked with Clem Christensen, editor of the literary journal 'Meanjin'.
Judith Wright's meeting with J.P. McKinney, and moving to Queensland, proved beneficial to her career. She wrote most of her works in the mountains of southern Queensland only. Her next move, to Braidwood, was with respect to her protest against the political policies of Joh Bjelke-Petersen, the Premier of Queensland. It was here that Wright composed her nature-based poetry. Apart from being a poetess, Wright produced hack work; school plays for Australian Broadcasting Comission and children's books, to earn her livelihood.
Wright also lectured, as a part timer, at various Australian universities. In 1975, all her addresses and speeches were collected in the literary criticism 'Because I was Invited'. Around this time, she was selected as a foundation fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities and an emeritus professor of the Literature Board of the Arts Council of Australia. Some time later, she wrote her own memoir, 'Half a Lifetime', covering her life until 1960s, which was published in 2000.
Preoccupations in Australian Poetry
Because I was Invited
The Moving Image
Woman to Man
The Gateway
The Two Fires
Birds
A Human Pattern: Selected Poems
Wright was of Cornish anc...