Alexis Wright (born 25 November 1950) is an

Aboriginal Australian Aboriginal Australians are the various indigenous peoples of the Australian mainland and many of its islands, excluding the ethnically distinct people of the Torres Strait Islands. Humans first migrated to Australia 50,000 to 65,000 year ...

writer. She is best known for winning the

Miles Franklin Award The Miles Franklin Literary Award is an annual literary prize awarded to "a novel which is of the highest literary merit and presents Australian life in any of its phases". The award was set up according to the Will (law), will of Miles Franklin ...

for her 2006 novel '' Carpentaria''. She was the first writer to win the Stella Prize twice, in 2018 for her "collective memoir" of Leigh Bruce "Tracker" Tilmouth and in 2024 for the novel '' Praiseworthy''. ''Praiseworthy'' also won her the

in 2024, making her the first person to win the Stella Prize and Miles Franklin Award in the same year. Wright has published four novels, one biography, and several works of nonfiction. Her work also appears in anthologies and journals.

Early life and education

Alexis Wright was born on 25 November 1950 in Cloncurry, Queensland, Australia. She is an

woman of the Waanyi nation in the highlands of the southern

Gulf of Carpentaria The Gulf of Carpentaria is a sea off the northern coast of Australia. It is enclosed on three sides by northern Australia and bounded on the north by the eastern Arafura Sea, which separates Australia and New Guinea. The northern boundary ...

. Her father, a white cattleman, died when she was five years old. She grew up in Cloncurry with her mother and grandmother.

Activism

Wright has been a land rights activist. When the Northern Territory Intervention proposed by the Howard Government in mid-2007 was introduced, Wright delivered a high-profile 10,000-word speech, sponsored by International PEN.

Literary career

Wright's first book was the novel ''Plains of Promise'', published in 1997. She is also the author of non-fiction works. ''Take Power'', on the history of the land rights movement, was published in 1998, and ''Grog War'' ( Magabala Books) on the introduction of alcohol restrictions in

Tennant Creek Tennant Creek () is a town located in the Northern Territory of Australia. It is the Northern Territory#Cities and towns, seventh largest town in the Northern Territory, and is located on the Stuart Highway, just south of the intersection with ...

, published in 1997. Her second novel, '' Carpentaria'', took two years to conceive and more than six years to write. It was rejected by every major publisher in Australia before independent publisher Giramondo published it in 2006. It went on to win several major prizes. In 2013 Wright's third novel, ''The Swan Book'', was published. The book delves into the cultural and racial political challenges facing Australia's Indigenous peoples. Wright's book, '' Tracker'', her tribute to the central Australian economist Tracker Tilmouth, was published by Giramondo in 2017. A biographical work variously characterised as unconventional and complicated, In the words of Ben Etherington: "It is a work, epic in scope and size, that will ensure that a legend of Central Australian politics is preserved in myth."

Collaborations, media, and other activities

In 2009, Wright wrote the words for ''Dirtsong'', a

musical theatre Musical theatre is a form of theatre, theatrical performance that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting and dance. The story and emotional content of a musical – humor, pathos, love, anger – are communicated through words, music, ...

production created and performed by the Black Arm Band theatre company. The performance included both contemporary and traditional songs, and had its world premiere at the 2009 Melbourne International Arts Festival. The show was reprised for the 2014

Adelaide Festival The Adelaide Festival of Arts, also known as the Adelaide Festival, an arts festival, takes place in the South Australian capital of Adelaide in March each year. Started in 1960, it is a major celebration of the arts and a significant cultural ...

, with performers including Trevor Jamieson,

Archie Roach Archibald William Roach (8 January 1956 – 30 July 2022) was an Australian (Gunditjmara and Western Bundjalung people, Bundjalung) singer-songwriter and Aboriginal Australian, Aboriginal activist. Often referred to as "Uncle Archie", Roach wa ...

, Lou Bennett, Emma Donovan, Paul Dempsey, and many other singers and musicians. Some of the songs were sung in Aboriginal languages. Wright was a 2012 attendee of the Byron Bay Writers Festival and Singapore Writers Festival. Wright was on the program for four events at the 2017 Brisbane Writers Festival in

Brisbane Brisbane ( ; ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and largest city of the States and territories of Australia, state of Queensland and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia, with a ...

Queensland Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Austr ...

, Australia. In 2018, Wright conducted another storytelling collaboration, this time with the Gangalidda leader and activist Clarence Walden in Doomadgee, Northern Queensland. Her work with Walden led to two feature documentaries, ''Nothing but the Truth'', a radio feature that broadcast on the ''Awaye!'' program on ABC Radio National in June 2019, and ''Straight from the Heart'', a screen documentary that premiered at ''World Literature and the Global South'' in August 2019.

Recognition and awards

''Plains of Promise'' (1997), was nominated for several literary awards. ''Carpentaria'' won the

in June 2007, the 2007 Fiction Book Award in the

Queensland Premier's Literary Awards The Queensland Premier's Literary Awards were an Australian suite of literary awards inaugurated in 1999 and disestablished in 2012. It was one of the most generous suites of literary awards within Australia, with $225,000 in prize money across ...

, the 2007 ALS Gold Medal and the 2007 Vance Palmer Prize for Fiction. ''The Swan Book'' was shortlisted for the 2014 Victorian Premier's Literary Award for Indigenous Writing. In 2014, Wright was appointed an Honorary Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities. In 2018, Wright was awarded the Stella Prize for ''Tracker''. She was awarded the 2018 Magarey Medal for Biography for ''Tracker''. ''Tracker'' also won the 2018 University of Queensland Non-Fiction Book Award at the Queensland Literary Awards. and was shortlisted for the New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards, Douglas Stewart Prize for Non-Fiction 2019. Published in the UK by And Other Stories, ''Tracker'' went on to be longlisted in February 2025 for the Women's Prize for Non-Fiction. Wright won her second Stella Prize in 2024 for '' Praiseworthy.'' ''Praiseworthy'' also won her the

in 2024, making her the first person to win the Stella Prize and Miles Franklin Award in the same year. Wright won the Fiction Book Award and was shortlisted for the Queensland Premier's Award for a Work of State Significance at the 2023 Queensland Literary Awards for ''Praiseworthy''. ''Praiseworthy'' won the 2023 James Tait Black Prize and the 2024 Stella Prize. It was shortlisted for the 2024 International Dublin Literary Award and won the 2024 ALS Gold Medal. This was Wright's third ALS Gold Medal. She is the third author to have achieved this, after Patrick White and

David Malouf David George Joseph Malouf (; born 20 March 1934) is an Australian poet, novelist, short story writer, playwright and Libretto, librettist. Elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2008, Malouf has lectured at both the University ...

. She received the Creative Australia Award for Lifetime Achievement in Literature in 2023 and was awarded the Melbourne Prize for Literature in 2024.

Academic career

Wright is a Distinguished Research Fellow at Western Sydney University. She is a member of the Australian Research Council research project "Other Worlds: Forms of World Literature". Building on her success with ''Tracker'', her theme for the project focuses on forms of Aboriginal oral storytelling. In 2017, Wright was named the Boisbouvier Chair in Australian Literature at the

University of Melbourne The University of Melbourne (colloquially known as Melbourne University) is a public university, public research university located in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1853, it is Australia's second oldest university and the oldest in the state ...

Works

Novels

* * * *

Short stories

* "Le Pacte du serpent arc-en-ciel". he Rainbow Serpent's Covenant/nowiki> (trans. Marc de Gouvenain and Sylvie Kande; Acte Sud, 2002).

Non-fiction

* ''Grog War'' (Magabala, 1997). . Review
/small> * ''Croire en l'incroyable''. elieving the Unbelievable/nowiki> (trans. Sabine Porte, Marc de Gouvenain and Sylvie Kande; Actes Sud, 2000). * '' Tracker'' (Sydney: Giramondo, 2017). . (UK: And Other Stories, January 2025; )Tracker
at And Other Stories.

Edited works

* ''Take Power, Like This Old Man Here: An anthology of writings celebrating twenty years of land rights in Central Australia, 1977–1997'' (IAD, 1998).

References

External links

Essay, ''Australian Humanities Review''. * Jane Perlez

''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'', 18 November 2007. * Stephen Moss
"Dream warrior"
''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'', 15 April 2008.
"Alexis Wright wins Miles Franklin Award"
''

The Age ''The Age'' is a daily newspaper in Melbourne, Australia, that has been published since 1854. Owned and published by Nine Entertainment, ''The Age'' primarily serves Victoria (Australia), Victoria, but copies also sell in Tasmania, the Austral ...

'', 21 June 2007.
''"Other Worlds: Forms of World Literature"''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wright, Alexis 1950 births 20th-century Australian novelists 20th-century Australian short story writers 20th-century Australian women writers 21st-century Australian novelists 21st-century Australian short story writers 21st-century Australian women writers Academic staff of the University of Melbourne ALS Gold Medal winners Australian science fiction writers Australian women novelists Australian women short story writers Fellows of the Australian Academy of the Humanities Indigenous Australian writers Living people Miles Franklin Award winners RMIT University alumni Writers from Queensland