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Alexis Wright Alexis Wright i(A6167 works by)
Born: Established: 1950 Cloncurry, Far North Queensland, Queensland, ;
Gender: Female
Heritage: Aboriginal Waanyi ; Aboriginal ; Chinese
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Works By

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1 About Sending Letters Alexis Wright , 2020 extract novel (Carpentaria)
— Appears in: Humanities Australia , no. 11 2020;
1 In Times Like These, What Would Oodgeroo Do? On the Influence Of Aboriginal Poet, Activist And Educator Oodgeroo Noonuccal Alexis Wright , 2020 single work column
— Appears in: The Monthly , December no. 173 2020; (p. 22-28)
'Oodgeroo Noonuccal is widely acknowledged as a distinguished poet of determination and brilliance. She was also one of the heroes of the Aboriginal struggle for justice in the 1960s, known for her work as an activist, educator and public speaker. Her poetry educated Australians – and people throughout the world – on the plight of Aboriginal people. And she triumphantly let the world know through her poetry that the Australian style was not hers. In “Not My Style”, she yearned for a new time in this country: “I want to do / The things I have not done. / Not just taste the nectar of Gods / But drown in it too.”' (Introduction)
1 A Self-governing Literature : Who Owns the Map of the World? Alexis Wright , 2020 single work essay
— Appears in: Meanjin , June vol. 79 no. 2 2020; (p. 92-101)
'The imaginative literary mind is as boundless as it is borderless and bountiful in its way, finding ways of powerfully creating anew the already imagined with the unimagined or unimaginable. Possibly George Orwell had thought something like this when he explained that the imagination was like certain wild animals that do not breed in captivity, and that writers who denied this fact were in effect demanding their own destruction.1 The dreamlike state of imagining is continuously curious while it shifts and reshapes its positioning and influences. But imagination is never alone. There is a fight going on all day long in the mind of the writer about how to counterbalance the fanciful world of the imagination.' (Introduction)
1 Here's the Story of Pirate the Cockatoo, the Hissing White Ghost Who Became Boss of My Heart Alexis Wright , 2019 single work column
— Appears in: The Guardian Australia , 31 October 2019;

'I ended up incorporating him into my novel Carpentaria, where he now looms larger than life.' (Introduction)

1 A Journey in Writing Place Alexis Wright , 2019 single work essay
— Appears in: Meanjin , Winter vol. 78 no. 2 2019; (p. 44-53)
I am acutely aware while visiting other places that I am in the home of the ancestors whose stories since ancient times are preserved in the land, seas, skies and atmosphere.' (Introduction)
1 The Ancient Library and a Self-Governing Literature Alexis Wright , 2019 single work essay
— Appears in: Sydney Review of Books , June 2019;

'My literary journey has been such an amazing opportunity to work and play with the possibilities of the imagination, but it has also been a long hard battle of working through insecurities about the plan to write a proper good book.  Even the idea of story is a cultural understanding that story involves all times and realities, the ancient and new, the story within story within story – all interconnected, all unresolved – and this perspective is a truly wonderful way of seeing and embracing the world of the imagination.' (Introduction)

1 Telling the Untold Stories : Alexis Wright on Censorship Alexis Wright , 2019 single work column
— Appears in: Overland [Online] , February 2019; Overland , Autumn no. 234 2019; (p. 16-21)

'I would like to acknowledge the Boomwurung and Wurundjeri people of the Kulin Nation, and pay respect to their elders, past and present, and extend that respect to other Aboriginal people here today.

'I would also like to acknowledge the ancestral stories of our people which we safeguard in the world’s oldest library – the land, seas, skies and atmosphere of this country.

'It is a great honor and privilege to give the 2018 Stephen Murray-Smith Memorial Lecture. One small thing that I have in common with Stephen Murray-Smith is that I also came from a home that was bookless, but even so, I would not have traded a childhood that was enriched every day by the oral storytelling culture of my family and our people. Now I live more than a thousand miles from my home in this beautiful city of literature. I read that Stephen Murray-Smith had unswerving principles about the things he believed in, and I am sometimes like this too.' (Introduction)

1 The Power and Purpose of Literature : Boisbouvier Oration 2018 Alexis Wright , 2018 single work essay
— Appears in: Meanjin , Summer vol. 77 no. 4 2018; (p. 209-218)

'I thought I would begin this talk about the power and purpose of literature by talking about my 1998 book Take Power. The title came from a Gurindji Elder while telling the story of the ten-year battle his people fought against Vestey’s, a British pastoral company that owned the Wave Hill pastoral property in the north-west of the Northern Territory, when in 1966, 200 Gurindji, the traditional landowners, walked off the cattle station where they worked on their stolen lands because of the harsh treatment they were receiving from the management of the pastoral property. Vincent Lingiari, who led his people off Wave Hill, said: ‘We can’t go back to that Vestey’s. Vestey’s been treating me like a walagu (dog). Make mefella worry.’ The Gurindji kept telling their story straight, and eventually they achieved land rights over part of their traditional lands.' (Introduction)

1 Hey, Ancestor! Alexis Wright , 2018 single work prose
— Appears in: The Guardian Australia , 26 January 2018; Griffith Review , no. 60 2018; (p. 46-49) Fire Front : First Nations Poetry and Power Today 2020; (p. 9-14)

'Hey ancestor, you talking to me?

'Country time everyday.

'I know, I know, but wouldn’t you know it, it’s the 26th of January again, old Whitefella Day.

'Party time for some, sad day for others.' 

1 Helen Garner, Peter Carey and Alexis Wright on What They're Reading in November Beau Donelly , Nick Toscano , Fiona Wright , Garry Disher , Kári Gíslason , Richard Fidler , Alex Miller , Alexis Wright , A. S. Patrić , Peter Carey , Helen Garner , 2017 single work
— Appears in: The Guardian Australia , 22 November 2017;
1 21 y separately published work icon Tracker Tracker : Stories of Tracker Tilmouth Alexis Wright , Artarmon : Giramondo Publishing , 2017 11570382 2017 single work biography

'The legendary Indigenous activist ‘Tracker’ Tilmouth died in Darwin in 2015. Taken from his family as a child and brought up on a mission on Croker Island, he returned home to transform the world of Aboriginal politics. He worked tirelessly for Aboriginal self-determination, creating opportunities for land use and economic development in his many roles, including Director of the Central Land Council. He was a visionary and a projector of ideas, renowned for his irreverent humour and his colourful anecdotes. The memoir was composed by Wright from interviews with Tracker before he died, as well as with his family, friends and colleagues, weaving his and their stories together into a book that is as much a tribute to the role played by storytelling in contemporary Aboriginal life as it is to the legacy of a remarkable man.'  (Publication summary)

1 2 What Happens When You Tell Somebody Else's Story? Alexis Wright , 2016 single work criticism
— Appears in: Meanjin , Summer vol. 75 no. 4 2016; (p. 58-76)
1 Tracker's Vision Splendid Alexis Wright , 2015 single work obituary (for Tracker Tilmouth )
— Appears in: Land Rights News , April vol. 5 no. 2015; (p. 28)
'Tracker Tilmouth was an Aboriginal leader, political thinker and strategist of the highest order...'
1 The Words We Loved Charlotte Wood , Geraldine Brooks , Graeme Simsion , Michael Robotham , Chris Wallace-Crabbe , Helen Garner , Favel Parrett , Gregory Day , Fiona Wright , Alexis Wright , Robert Adamson , Debra Adelaide , Lisa Gorton , Abigail Ulman , Christos Tsiolkas , Maxine Beneba Clarke , Susan Johnson , Kristina Olsson , Peter Goldsworthy , Tim Flannery , Malcolm Knox , Shane Maloney , Thomas Keneally , Don Watson , Anita Heiss , Omar Musa , 2015 single work review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 12-13 December 2015; (p. 24-26) The Saturday Age , 12-13 December 2015; (p. 30)
Famous Australian writers pick their favourite reads of 2015
1 PIEŚŃ ZIEMI (DIRTSONG) Alexis Wright , 2014 single work criticism poetry
— Appears in: Poezja : Dzisiaj , no. 106 2014;
1 Imaginary Tales Michael Williams , Toni Jordan , Clare Wright , James Button , Jason Steger , Alexis Wright , Thomas Keneally , 2014 single work column
— Appears in: The Age , 23 August 2014; (p. 14)
'As readers descend on Melbourne for the annual writers festival, seven literary Australians envision the books that might have been.'
2 66 y separately published work icon The Swan Book Alexis Wright , Artarmon : Giramondo Publishing , 2013 Z1836223 2013 single work novel (taught in 14 units)

'The new novel by Alexis Wright, whose previous novel Carpentaria won the Miles Franklin Award and four other major prizes including the Australian Book Industry Awards Literary Fiction Book of the Year Award. The Swan Book is set in the future, with Aboriginals still living under the Intervention in the north, in an environment fundamentally altered by climate change. It follows the life of a mute teenager called Oblivia, the victim of gang-rape by petrol-sniffing youths, from the displaced community where she lives in a hulk, in a swamp filled with rusting boats, and thousands of black swans driven from other parts of the country, to her marriage to Warren Finch, the first Aboriginal president of Australia, and her elevation to the position of First Lady, confined to a tower in a flooded and lawless southern city. The Swan Book has all the qualities which made Wright’s previous novel, Carpentaria, a prize-winning best-seller. It offers an intimate awareness of the realities facing Aboriginal people; the wild energy and humour in her writing finds hope in the bleakest situations; and the remarkable combination of storytelling elements, drawn from myth and legend and fairy tale.' (Publisher's blurb)

1 A Year of Reading Kerry Greenwood , Chris Wallace-Crabbe , Emily Maguire , Robert Adamson , Brenda Niall , A. P. Riemer , Helen Garner , Peter Carey , Lisa Gorton , John Bradley , Clare Wright , Alexis Wright , Geraldine Brooks , Hannah Kent , Dennis Altman , Andrea Goldsmith , 2013 single work column
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 14-15 December 2013; (p. 28-28) The Age , 14 December 2013; (p. 22)
'Australian authors and critics sift through the piles of books they read in 2013 to highlight the treasures they found.'
1 Deep Weather Alexis Wright , 2011 single work essay
— Appears in: Meanjin Online 2011; Meanjin , Autumn vol. 70 no. 2 2011; (p. 70-78)
1 Where to Point the Spears? Alexis Wright , 2011 single work criticism
— Appears in: Experiences of Freedom in Postcolonial Literatures and Cultures 2011; (p. 35-42)
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