Lisa Gorton

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Lisa Gorton
Born1972
OccupationPoet and novelist
LanguageEnglish
NationalityAustralian
Years active1993-
Notable worksThe Life of Houses
Notable awards2016 Prime Minister's Literary Awards – Fiction

Lisa Gorton (born 1972) is an Australian poet, novelist, literary editor and essayist. [1] She is the author of four award-winning poetry collections: Press Release, [2] Hotel Hyperion, [3] Empirical, [4] and Mirabilia. [5] Her second novel, The Life of Houses, received the NSW Premier's People's Choice Award for Fiction [6] and the Prime Minister's Literary Award for Fiction (shared). [7] Gorton is also the editor of Black Inc's anthology Best Australian Poems 2013. [8]

Contents

Education

Gorton was educated at the University of Melbourne and at University of Oxford. [9] At Oxford, as a Rhodes Scholar, Gorton completed an MPhil in Renaissance Literature and a DPhil on John Donne. [9] She received the John Donne Society Award for Outstanding Publication in Donne Studies. [10]

Career

In 1994 she was awarded the inaugural Vincent Buckley Poetry Prize. [11]

Having previously worked as poetry editor for the Australian Book Review , Gorton was selected as ABR Poet of the Month in October 2019. [12] [13] Gorton has contributed essays to the Australian Book Review [12] and the Sydney Review of Books . [14] As of 2021, she is poetry editor of Island Magazine . [15]

She is the granddaughter of the former Prime Minister John Gorton. [11]

Writing

Gorton's poetry has been widely anthologised, including in The Turnrow Anthology of Contemporary Australian Poetry, [16] The Best Australian Poems series (2008, [17] 2009, [18] 2010, [19] 2011, [20] 2012, [21] 2014, [22] 2015 [23] ), Contemporary Australian Feminist Poetry, [24] the Anthology of Australian Prose Poetry, [25] the Poetry Magazine May 2016 selection of Australian poetry, edited by Robert Adamson, with photographs by Juno Gemes, [26] and online anthologies Poetry International [9] and lyrikline. [27] Her poetry can also be found online at Cordite magazine. [28]

Gorton's essays have been published in the Sydney Review of Books [29] and Australian Book Review , [30] and in the essay collection Australian Face. [31] Gorton wrote the introductory essay for the Text Classics reissue of Christina Stead's novel The Little Hotel. [32] She also wrote the catalogue essay for Izabela Pluta's artwork Apparent Distance in the 2019 exhibition The National at the Art Gallery of New South Wales. [33]

Gorton is interested in ekphrastic poetry. She has composed a series of poems for Izabela Pluta's artist's book Figures of Slippage and Oscillation. [34] She has also written ekphrastic poems for the catalogue of the 2010 Adelaide Biennial of Contemporary Art Before and After Science, [35] for the exhibition Conversations in Ellipsis, [36] and for the Melbourne Now limited edition volume from the National Gallery of Victoria. [37]

Gorton gave a poetry reading at TEDx Sydney in 2010. [38]

Awards and recognition

Gorton's awards for poetry include the Victorian Premier's Prize for Poetry, [30] the Vincent Buckley Poetry Prize, [10] and the Philip Hodgins Memorial Medal. [39] Her novel The Life of Houses was awarded the New South Wales Premier's People's Choice Award, and the Prime Minister's Fiction Prize. [6]  

Her poetry books have also been shortlisted in the Prime Minister's Prize for Poetry, [40] the Mary Gilmore Poetry Prize, [41] the Melbourne Prize for Literature Best Writing Award, [41] and the NSW Premier's Poetry Award. [42]

Critical response

On Empirical

Jessica Wilkinson, poet and editor of Rabbit magazine, interviewed Gorton about her poetry collection Empirical, noting Lisa's interest in "how a feeling for place originates". [51] In the Sydney Review of Books, poet and critic Michael Farrell suggests that Gorton's poetry collection Empirical offers "models of 3D thought", remarking that "Gorton reanimates - and translates - historical textual materials into contemporary poetry", and that her work "performs as an antidote to nationalist ideology". [52] In The Sydney Morning Herald , James Antoniou writes: "an important voice is breaking through here: assured, polyphonic and, for all its quietness, visionary". [53]

On The Life of Houses

In the Sydney Review of Books , Kerryn Goldsworthy writes about Gorton's debut novel The Life of Houses: [54] "One of the main reasons for Gorton's status as a highly respected, prize-winning Australian poet is her unique and personal angle of vision on the world. It's something that, as Auden surmises, cannot be taught…For Gorton it seems not so much a matter of finding le mot juste as of making something entirely new: not merely choosing the word or naming the non-verbal thing it represents, but of using metaphor to create a new and separate third entity in which a word or phrase brings an inchoate, intangible feeling, sensation or memory out of the shadows and into the sunlight of consciousness."

Works

Poetry

Individual poems have been published in HEAT , [55] Poetry , [56] The Best Australian Poems 2008, [17] The Best Australian Poems 2009, [18] The Best Australian Poems 2010, [19] and The Best Australian Poems 2012. [21]

Novels

Edited

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References

  1. ↑ "HOME". Mysite. Retrieved 25 June 2021.
  2. ↑ "Press Release". Giramondo Publishing. Retrieved 25 June 2021.
  3. ↑ "Hotel Hyperion". Giramondo Publishing. Retrieved 25 June 2021.
  4. ↑ "Empirical". Giramondo Publishing. Retrieved 25 June 2021.
  5. ↑ "Mirabilia | Poetry by Lisa Gorton". Giramondo Publishing. 1 March 2023. Retrieved 8 November 2024.
  6. 1 2 "Joanne Burns and Lisa Gorton Winners of NSW Premier's Literary Awards". Giramondo Publishing. 15 July 2016. Retrieved 25 June 2021.
  7. ↑ Guardian Staff (8 November 2016). "Prime Minister's Literary awards 2016: Lisa Gorton and Charlotte Wood share fiction prize". the Guardian. Retrieved 25 June 2021.
  8. ↑ The Best Australian Poems 2013 by Lisa Gorton. 17 September 2013.
  9. 1 2 3 "Lisa Gorton (poet) - Australia - Poetry International". www.poetryinternational.org. Retrieved 25 June 2021.
  10. 1 2 3 "Lisa Gorton". Red Room Poetry. Retrieved 25 June 2021.
  11. 1 2 3 Sullivan, Jane (17 April 2015). "Lisa Gorton: Prize-winning poet writes her first novel". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 22 March 2020.
  12. 1 2 "Lisa Gorton". Australian Book Review. Retrieved 22 March 2020.
  13. ↑ "Lisa Gorton is Poet of the Month". Australian Book Review. No. 415. October 2019. Retrieved 22 March 2020.
  14. ↑ "Lisa Gorton". Sydney Review of Books. Retrieved 22 March 2020.
  15. ↑ "Meet the Team". Island magazine. Retrieved 15 March 2021.
  16. ↑ Kinsella, John, ed. (2014). The Turnrow anthology of contemporary Australian poetry. Monroe, LA. ISBN   978-0-9703964-1-9. OCLC   887100989.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  17. 1 2 Rose, Peter, ed. (2008). The best Australian poems 2008. Melbourne: Black Inc. ISBN   978-1-86395-303-0. OCLC   277159164.
  18. 1 2 Adamson, Robert, ed. (2009). The best Australian poems 2009. Melbourne: Black Inc. ISBN   978-1-86395-452-5. OCLC   472529846.
  19. 1 2 Adamson, Robert, ed. (2010). The best Australian poems 2010. Melbourne: Black Inc. ISBN   978-1-86395-496-9. OCLC   681623372.
  20. ↑ Tranter, John, ed. (2011). The best Australian poems 2011. Collingwood, Vic.: Black Inc. ISBN   978-1-86395-549-2. OCLC   759871511.
  21. 1 2 Tranter, John, ed. (2012). The best Australian poems 2012. Collingwood, Vic.: Black Inc. ISBN   978-1-86395-581-2. OCLC   816172127.
  22. ↑ Page, Geoff, ed. (13 October 2023). Best Australian Poems 2014. Collingwood: Schwartz Publishing Pty Limited. ISBN   978-1-86395-697-0. OCLC   890933149.
  23. ↑ Page, Geoff, ed. (2015). Best Australian poems 2015. Collingwood, Vic, Australia. ISBN   978-1-86395-779-3. OCLC   913499999.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  24. ↑ Cassidy, Bonny; Wilkinson, Jessica L., eds. (2016). Contemporary Australian feminist poetry. St Lucia, Qld. ISBN   978-0-9943528-7-3. OCLC   954346443.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  25. ↑ Atherton, Cassandra L.; Hetherington, Paul, eds. (2020). The anthology of Australian prose poetry. Carleton, Victoria, Australia. ISBN   978-0-522-87475-4. OCLC   1202463618.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  26. ↑ Adamson, Robert, ed. (May 2016). "Australian Poets". Poetry. Juno Gemes, photographer. Retrieved 29 June 2024– via Poetry Foundation.
  27. ↑ "DREAMS AND ARTEFACTS (Lisa Gorton)". www.lyrikline.org. Retrieved 25 June 2021.
  28. ↑ "Lisa Gorton". Cordite Poetry Review. Retrieved 25 June 2021.
  29. ↑ "Lisa Gorton". Sydney Review of Books. Retrieved 25 June 2021.
  30. 1 2 "Lisa Gorton". www.australianbookreview.com.au. Retrieved 25 June 2021.
  31. ↑ Ley, James; Menzies-Pike, Catriona (eds.). "The Australian Face". Giramondo Publishing. Retrieved 25 June 2021.
  32. ↑ Stead, Christina (3 October 2016). The Little Hotel, book by Christina Stead. Text Publishing Company. ISBN   978-1-925355-73-4.
  33. ↑ Gorton, Lisa. "Izabela Pluta – Sydney 2019". The National 4. Retrieved 25 June 2021.
  34. ↑ "Izabela Pluta – Figures of slippage and oscillation". Perimeter Books. Retrieved 25 June 2021.
  35. ↑ Before and after science : 2010 Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art. Charlotte Day, Sarah Tutton, Art Gallery of South Australia. Adelaide, S. Aust.: Art Gallery of South Australia. 2010. ISBN   978-1-921668-00-5. OCLC   495095414.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  36. ↑ "Conversations in ellipsis: an exercise in affect & association... time & (e)motion studies, or things unsaid". Artlink Magazine. Retrieved 25 June 2021.
  37. ↑ Melbourne now. Max Delany, Fleur Watson, Isobel Crombie, Nikos Papastergiadis, Maggie Finch, Judith Ryan. Melbourne. 2013. ISBN   978-0-7241-0376-8. OCLC   857900583.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) CS1 maint: others (link)
  38. ↑ "Lisa Gorton". TEDxSydney. Retrieved 25 June 2021.
  39. ↑ "Lisa Gorton". Giramondo Publishing. Retrieved 25 June 2021.
  40. ↑ Office for the Arts, Department of Infrastructure (9 September 2020). "Empirical". www.arts.gov.au. Retrieved 25 June 2021.
  41. 1 2 "Lisa Gorton". The Wheeler Centre. Retrieved 25 June 2021.
  42. ↑ "Empirical". www.newsouthbooks.com.au. Retrieved 26 June 2021.
  43. ↑ "Victorian Premier's Literary Awards: Winners and Shortlist 2008, State Library of Victoria". 3 January 2009. Archived from the original on 3 January 2009. Retrieved 22 March 2020.
  44. ↑ "2014 Premier's Book Awards". State Library of Western Australia. Retrieved 22 March 2020.
  45. ↑ "Philip Hodgins Memorial Medal". Mildura Writers Festival. Retrieved 22 March 2020.
  46. ↑ "Winners and shortlist". Department of Communications and the Arts. 2 November 2018. Retrieved 22 March 2020.
  47. ↑ "The Life of Houses by Lisa Gorton". www.angusrobertson.com.au. Retrieved 22 March 2020.
  48. ↑ "NSW Premier's Literary Awards 2020 shortlists announced". Books+Publishing. 20 March 2020. Retrieved 21 March 2020.
  49. ↑ "Australian Centre Literary Awards - Wesley Michel Wright Prize in Poetry". AustLit: Discover Australian Stories. The University of Queensland. Retrieved 21 October 2023.
  50. ↑ "Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry". State Library of NSW. Retrieved 1 March 2023.
  51. ↑ "Jessica L. Wilkinson interviews Lisa Gorton". Rabbit Poetry. Retrieved 26 June 2021.
  52. ↑ "Uncrushed Local Thought | Michael Farrel reviews Empirical by Lisa Gorton". Sydney Review of Books. Retrieved 26 June 2021.
  53. ↑ Antoniou, James (2 August 2019). "The place of poetry and the poetry of place". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 26 June 2021.
  54. ↑ "The Life of Houses | Lisa Gorton | Review |". Sydney Review of Books. Retrieved 26 June 2021.
  55. ↑ "About Giramondo | Giramondo Publishing Company". Giramondo Publishing. Retrieved 26 June 2021.
  56. ↑ "Lisa Gorton". Poetry Foundation. 22 March 2020. Retrieved 22 March 2020.
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