Ali Cobby Eckermann

Last updated

Ali Cobby Eckermann (born 1963) is an Australian poet of Aboriginal Australian ancestry. She is a Yankunytjatjara / Kokatha woman born on Kaurna land in South Australia.

Contents

Eckermann has written poetry collections, verse novels and a memoir, and has been shortlisted for or won several literary awards. In 2017, she won the international Windham-Campbell Literature Prize for Poetry. She has travelled extensively, performing her poetry.

Early life

Ali Cobby Eckermann was born Penelope Rae Cobby at the Kate Cocks Memorial Babies’ Home in Adelaide, [1] traditional home of the Kaurna people, in 1963. [2] She was adopted as a baby by a Lutheran couple, Clarrie and Frieda Eckermann. [1] She grew up on a farm, and did her schooling at Brinkworth Area School and Clare High School, in mid-north South Australia. [3]

Eckermann, her mother and her grandmother were all stolen, tricked or adopted away from their birth families, becoming part of the Stolen Generations. [4]

She grew up in a loving supportive home, but she was assaulted sexually by a family friend when she seven years old, and experienced ongoing abuse and racism while growing up. At 17 she left home with a man with whom she lived for two years, but whom she left due to his violence. She returned home, only to discover she was pregnant, and gave birth when she was 19. Her son was adopted out. [1]

After turning 18, Eckermann began searching for her birth mother, Audrey, but didn't find her until she was 34, after information had been released with the Bringing Them Home report in 1997. [5] [1] Four years later, she found her son Jonnie. [1]

Most of her early adult life was spent in the Northern Territory, on Arrernte country, Jawoyn country and Larrakia country. [5] She worked in various places, including a remote arts centre outside Alice Springs.

She says "I learnt to live in two different ways over my life. I learnt a good example of hard work and kindness from growing up with my mum and dad in my adopted family. And I’m extremely grateful that my traditional family welcomed me back with such love and honesty. I got a second chance to live in an honest world". [1]

Writing career

Eckermann's literary career was established in 2009 after she submitted her first collection of poetry to a manuscript competition run by Australian Poetry. It was published under the title, Little Bit Long Time, first in pamphlet form by the Australian Poetry Centre and then in book form, both in 2009. Its subject matter is the problematic history of Indigenous Australians since colonial times, which means that she explores both her own life and experience, as an indigenous woman, as well as looking at the historical perspective. She returns to this subject matter repeatedly in her work.

Since then, she has published three more poetry collections, two verse novels and a memoir.

Her third book, and second verse novel, Ruby Moonlight, was awarded both Book of the Year and the Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry in the 2013 New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards.

Eckermann founded Australia's first Aboriginal Writers Retreat in Koolunga, in a 130-year-old general store which she restored. [3]

In 2014, she participated in the International Writing Program's Fall Residency at the University of Iowa in Iowa City, United States. [6]

Verse novels

Eckermann has written two verse novels, His Father's Eyes and Ruby Moonlight.

Ruby Moonlight is set in remote South Australia in the 1880s. It explores, writes Sarah Holland-Batt, "broader ideas about colonialism’s hierarchies and power structures, and its lingering historical impact on the first peoples of this country, on language, and on the very landscape itself. One of the most remarkable things about Ruby Moonlight is the subtlety with which its political implications are handled: Eckermann invites (rather than dictates) political readings of what is, at heart, a simple and highly engaging narrative." [7]

Other activities

As of 2021, Eckermann is on the board of the First Nations Australia Writers Network (FNAWN). [8]

Awards and nominations

Bibliography

Related Research Articles

André Alexis is a Canadian writer who grew up in Ottawa and lives in Toronto, Ontario. He has received numerous prizes including the Windham-Campbell Literature Prize.

Peter David Goldsworthy AM is an Australian writer and medical practitioner. He has won major awards for his short stories, poetry, novels, and opera libretti.

The Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry is awarded annually as part of the New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards for a book of collected poems or for a single poem of substantial length published in book form. It is named after Kenneth Slessor (1901–1971).

Kathryn Heyman is an Australian writer of novels and plays. She is the director of the Australian Writers Mentoring Program and Fiction Program Director of Faber Writing Academy.

Jordie Albiston Australian poet and academic

Jordie Albiston is a contemporary Australian poet.

Heather ONeill Canadian writer

Heather O'Neill is a Canadian novelist, poet, short story writer, screenwriter and journalist, who published her debut novel, Lullabies for Little Criminals, in 2006. The novel was subsequently selected for the 2007 edition of Canada Reads, where it was championed by singer-songwriter John K. Samson. Lullabies won the competition. The book also won the Hugh MacLennan Prize for Fiction and was shortlisted for eight other major awards, including the Orange Prize for Fiction and the Governor General's Award and was longlisted for International Dublin Literary Award.

Catherine Bateson is an Australian writer.

Tara June Winch Australian writer

Tara June Winch is an Australian writer. She is the 2020 winner of the Miles Franklin Award for her book The Yield.

Rhyll McMaster is a contemporary Australian poet and novelist. She has worked as a secretary, a nurse and a sheep farmer. She now lives in Sydney and has written full-time since 2000. She is a recipient of the Barbara Jefferis Award.

Jerry Pinto

Jerry Pinto is a Mumbai-based Indian English poet, novelist, short story writer, translator, as well as journalist. Pinto's works include Helen: The Life and Times of an H-Bomb (2006), which won the Best Book on Cinema Award at the 54th National Film Awards, Surviving Women (2000) and Asylum and Other Poems (2003). His first novel Em and the Big Hoom was published in 2012. Pinto won the Windham-Campbell prize in 2016 for his fiction. He was awarded the Sahitya Akademi Award in 2016 for his novel Em and the Big Hoom.

Queensland Poetry Festival (QPF) is one of Australia's premier organisations for all things poetry and spoken word. It exists to support and promote a poetry culture in Queensland and Australia, embracing the wide possibility of poetic expression in all of its forms. As well as hosting an annual 3–4-day festival over the last weekend of August in the Judith Wright Arts Centre and surrounds, QPF also produces a number of signature projects and programs throughout the year.

The Donald Windham Sandy M. Campbell Literature Prizes is an American literary award which offers prizes in four categories: fiction, nonfiction, poetry and drama. The award was established at Yale University in 2011 with the first prizes presented in 2013. Administered by the Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, the award recognizes English language writers from anywhere in the world. The mission of the award is to call attention to literary achievement and provide writers the opportunity to focus on their work independent of financial concerns. Eight prizes are awarded annually.

Pakistani English literature refers to English literature that has been developed and evolved in Pakistan, as well as by members of the Pakistani diaspora who write in the English language. English is one of the official languages of Pakistan and has a history going back to the British colonial rule in South Asia ; the national dialect spoken in the country is known as Pakistani English. Today, it occupies an important and integral part in modern Pakistani literature. Dr. Alamgir Hashmi introduced the term "Pakistani Literature [originally written] in English" with his "Preface" to his pioneering book Pakistani Literature: The Contemporary English Writers as well as through his other scholarly work and the seminars and courses taught by him in many universities since 1970's. It was established as an academic discipline in the world following his lead and further work by other scholars, and it is now a widely popular field of study.

Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi Ugandan novelist and short story writer

Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi is a Ugandan novelist and short story writer. Her doctoral novel, The Kintu Saga, was shortlisted and won the Kwani? Manuscript Project in 2013. It was published by Kwani Trust in 2014 under the title Kintu. Her short story collection, "Manchester Happened", was published in 2019. She was shortlisted for the 2014 Commonwealth Short Story Prize for her story "Let's Tell This Story Properly", and emerged Regional Winner, Africa region. She was the Overall Winner of the 2014 Commonwealth Short Story Prize. She was longlisted for the 2014 Etisalat Prize for Literature. She is a lecturer in Creative Writing at Lancaster University. In 2018 she was awarded a Windham-Campbell Prize in the fiction category. In 2021, her novel The First Woman won the Jhalak Prize.

Namwali Serpell Zambian-American writer (born 1980)

Carla Namwali Serpell is an American and Zambian writer who teaches in the United States. In April 2014 she was named on the Hay Festival's Africa39 list of 39 Sub-Saharan African writers aged under 40 with the potential and talent to define trends in African literature. Her short story "The Sack" won the 2015 Caine Prize for African fiction in English. In 2020, Serpell won the Belles-lettres category Grand Prix of Literary Associations 2019 for her novel The Old Drift.

Maria Tumarkin is an Australian cultural historian, essayist and novelist, and is Senior Lecturer in the School of Culture and Communication at the University of Melbourne, teaching creative writing.

Ellen van Neerven is an Aboriginal Australian author, educator and editor. They are queer and non-binary. Their first work of fiction, Heat and Light (2013), won several awards, and in 2019 Van Neerven won the Queensland Premier's Young Publishers and Writers Award. Their second collection of poetry, Throat (2020), won three awards at the 2021 New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards, including Book of the Year.

Indigenous Australian literature

Indigenous Australian literature is the fiction, plays, poems, essays and other works authored by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people of Australia.

Charmaine Papertalk Green is an Indigenous Australian poet. As Charmaine Green she works as a visual and installation artist.

The Victorian Premier's Prize for Indigenous Writing is a prize category in the annual Victorian Premier's Literary Award. The award commenced in 2004 and in 2012 the prize was valued at A$20,000. The winner of this category prize competes with the other category winners for overall Victorian Prize for Literature valued at an additional A$100,000. Nominees are allowed to enter other categories of the Victorian Premier's Literary Awards.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Eckermann, Ali Cobby. "My life as a stolen child". news.com.au. Retrieved 6 March 2017.
  2. ↑ "Ali Cobby Eckermann". Poetry International Rotterdam. Archived from the original on 7 March 2017. Retrieved 6 March 2017.
  3. 1 2 "Ali Eckermann". PoemHunter.com. Retrieved 6 March 2017.
  4. ↑ Ladd, Mike. "Poetry Review: Krissy Kneen and Ali Cobby Eckermann and their family influences". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 6 March 2017.
  5. 1 2 "Ali Cobby Eckermann". The Conversation. Retrieved 6 March 2017.
  6. ↑ "2014 Resident Participants | The International Writing Program". iwp.uiowa.edu. Retrieved 10 April 2017.
  7. ↑ Holland-Batt, Sarah (2013). "Verse novels in review" (PDF). Southerly. 72 (3). Retrieved 11 March 2017.
  8. ↑ "Board". First Nations Australia Writers Network. Retrieved 21 February 2021.
  9. ↑ "Victorian Premier's Literary Award for Indigenous Writing 2016 shortlist announced". Books+Publishing. 2 September 2016. Retrieved 9 December 2020.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  10. ↑ "Ali Cobby Eckermann". Windham-Campbell Prizes. Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library. Retrieved 18 March 2017.
  11. ↑ Vincent, Michael (11 July 2017). "Turning pain into poetry success". ABC News. ABC. Lateline. Retrieved 11 July 2017.
  12. ↑ "Windham-Campbell Prizes: Recipients". Windham-Campbell Prizes. Retrieved 6 March 2017.
  13. ↑ "Ali Cobby Eckermann: Writer, Poet and Australia Council's New Literary Fellow". Australia Council. 12 September 2018. Retrieved 25 February 2020.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.