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AbstractHistoryArchive Description
'Prize-winning poet Jordie Albiston’s third book is dramatic. It spotlights the crunch times in the life of Jean Lee 1919-1951 from adventurous girl to hanged woman. It captures the times, the completion of the Harbour Bridge, the youth culture of the milk bars, the 'overpaid, oversexed, over here’ American servicemen during the War, the invasion of petty crims for the 1949 Melbourne Cup won by Faxzami. Above all, it understands. Jean's last God-troubled speeches raise her mean life to suburban tragedy.' (Publication summary)
Notes
-
A novel in verse form
-
Jean Lee was the last woman hanged in Australia (1951).
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Works about this Work
-
The Mastery of Immersion and Advocacy in Jordie Albiston’s Poetry by Angela Costi
2021
single work
essay
— Appears in: Rochford Street Review , March no. 31 2021;'From March to November 2020, the Melbourne populace was restricted, curfewed and in ‘lockdown’ due to COVID19, bringing with it a slow-down, a chance to engage deeply with what nourishes. This was a time when I hunkered down with a breadth of poetry collections engaging with themes of isolation, exile and crises. I gravitated to collections of poems that built on an issue, immersing themselves in one world and all of its nuances. This is the mastery of award-winning poet and scholar, Dr Jordie Albiston. She applies outstanding rigour to research and content, as much as she does to form and metre. During the many months of solitary neighbourhood walks, mandatory masks and global crises spreading through airwaves, Albiston’s poems created reflective spaces on how history is only separated by time, and ‘love’ must be activated on a fundamental level.' (Introduction)
-
Black Pepper Press : Spice and Grit
2015
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Poetry Journal , vol. 5 no. 1 2015; (p. 110-121)
— Review of The Hanging of Jean Lee 1998 single work novel ; The Forest Set Out Like the Night 1995 single work poetry ; Eldershaw 2012 selected work poetry ; Exhibits of the Sun 2014 selected work poetry ; Paths of Flight 2013 selected work poetry ; Folly and Grief 2006 selected work poetry ; Colombine : New and Selected Poems 2010 selected work poetry ; Wimmera 2009 selected work poetry ; Woodsmoke 2013 selected work poetry -
Somewhere between Fiction and Non-fiction: New Approaches to Writing Crime Histories
2015
single work
criticism
— Appears in: TEXT Special Issue Website Series , April no. 28 2015; 'This paper explores innovative ways of writing across the borders between fiction and non-fiction in crime histories and examines how crime sources can actively encourage writing that is imaginative, subjective and ambiguous. Drawing on recent historiographic critiques of the archive, the paper argues that the constructedness of archival crime sources and close responsive reading and interpretation of these sources can validate, even demand, of historians the use of nuanced fictive writing practices that eloquently express the complexity of the crimes, the killers, the victims, the societies that created them and the intricacies and truths of the sources that contained them. As well as iconic examples from the literature, the paper examines my own research and writing about two very different murder trials from Perth, Western Australia, one already published, the other a work in progress. The trials of Martha Rendell and Audrey Jacob bookend sixteen years of Perth history from 1909 to 1925 when expectations and representations of women’s gender roles in Perth changed dramatically, producing very different outcomes for the women. The archival sources for each case determine the contrastive structures and styles for developing the resulting works of scholarly crime prose fiction.' (Publication abstract) -
Beyond Facts and Accuracies : Long Form Poetry as Biographical Method
2014
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Axon : Creative Explorations , December vol. 4 no. 2 2014; 'This paper addresses long form poetry as non-fiction medium—specifically as biographical medium—discussing examples by writers such as Jordie Albiston, Susan Howe and Lyn Hejinian, to consider the diversity of ways in which poets are writing/documenting the lives of historical figures. My aim is to demonstrate how poetic biographies can extend our representations of these characters into new dimensions, using poetic play—the line, metaphor, frisson, juxtaposition, space and rhythm—to convey aspects of character and experience in innovative and exciting ways. I propose an extension of non-fiction writing into the poetic form as a way towards addressing historical inaccuracies and aporias, thus not only opening a space for the representation of marginal voices, but offering new frameworks for life writing.' (Publication abstract) -
Interview with Jordie Albiston
Kate Middleton
(interviewer),
2001
single work
interview
— Appears in: Famous Reporter , December no. 24 2001; (p. 41-49)
-
Don't Play Games, I Want to Be Woken Up
1998
single work
review
— Appears in: LiNQ , October vol. 25 no. 2 1998; (p. 97-100)
— Review of The Impossible : And Other Poems 1998 selected work poetry ; Songs of the Last Chinese Poet 1997 sequence poetry ; Out of the Fast Lane 1998 selected work poetry ; Surface Tension 1998 selected work poetry ; The Hanging of Jean Lee 1998 single work novel -
Characters of Life
1999
single work
review
— Appears in: The Age , 17 April 1999; (p. 9)
— Review of The Impossible : And Other Poems 1998 selected work poetry ; The Genius of Human Imperfection 1998 selected work poetry ; The Hanging of Jean Lee 1998 single work novel -
The Hanging of Jean Lee
1998
single work
review
— Appears in: Meanjin , vol. 57 no. 4 1998; (p. 843-845)
— Review of The Hanging of Jean Lee 1998 single work novel -
A Grim and Rough Story
1999
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , May no. 210 1999; (p. 32-33)
— Review of The Hanging of Jean Lee 1998 single work novel -
The Strange Life of Jean Lee
1999
single work
review
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 10 April 1999; (p. 23)
— Review of The Hanging of Jean Lee 1998 single work novel -
'Cliff Hanging' and 'Gliding'
1999
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Ulitarra , no. 15 1999; (p. 144-148) -
Something Is Always Ushering Us : Recent Australian Poetry
2000
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Quadrant , March vol. 44 no. 3 2000; (p. 66-71) -
Interview with Jordie Albiston
Kate Middleton
(interviewer),
2001
single work
interview
— Appears in: Famous Reporter , December no. 24 2001; (p. 41-49) -
Somewhere between Fiction and Non-fiction: New Approaches to Writing Crime Histories
2015
single work
criticism
— Appears in: TEXT Special Issue Website Series , April no. 28 2015; 'This paper explores innovative ways of writing across the borders between fiction and non-fiction in crime histories and examines how crime sources can actively encourage writing that is imaginative, subjective and ambiguous. Drawing on recent historiographic critiques of the archive, the paper argues that the constructedness of archival crime sources and close responsive reading and interpretation of these sources can validate, even demand, of historians the use of nuanced fictive writing practices that eloquently express the complexity of the crimes, the killers, the victims, the societies that created them and the intricacies and truths of the sources that contained them. As well as iconic examples from the literature, the paper examines my own research and writing about two very different murder trials from Perth, Western Australia, one already published, the other a work in progress. The trials of Martha Rendell and Audrey Jacob bookend sixteen years of Perth history from 1909 to 1925 when expectations and representations of women’s gender roles in Perth changed dramatically, producing very different outcomes for the women. The archival sources for each case determine the contrastive structures and styles for developing the resulting works of scholarly crime prose fiction.' (Publication abstract) -
Beyond Facts and Accuracies : Long Form Poetry as Biographical Method
2014
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Axon : Creative Explorations , December vol. 4 no. 2 2014; 'This paper addresses long form poetry as non-fiction medium—specifically as biographical medium—discussing examples by writers such as Jordie Albiston, Susan Howe and Lyn Hejinian, to consider the diversity of ways in which poets are writing/documenting the lives of historical figures. My aim is to demonstrate how poetic biographies can extend our representations of these characters into new dimensions, using poetic play—the line, metaphor, frisson, juxtaposition, space and rhythm—to convey aspects of character and experience in innovative and exciting ways. I propose an extension of non-fiction writing into the poetic form as a way towards addressing historical inaccuracies and aporias, thus not only opening a space for the representation of marginal voices, but offering new frameworks for life writing.' (Publication abstract)
Last amended 6 Dec 2021 15:43:47
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