Lisa Gorton (born 1972) is an Australian poet, novelist, literary editor and essayist. She is the author of four award-winning poetry collections: ''Press Release'', ''Hotel Hyperion'', ''Empirical,'' and ''Mirabilia.'' Her second novel, ''The Life of Houses,'' received the NSW Premier's People's Choice Award for Fiction and the Prime Minister's Literary Award for Fiction (shared). Gorton is also the editor of Black Inc's anthology ''Best Australian Poems 2013''.
Education
Gorton was educated 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 ...
and at
University of Oxford
The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...
. At Oxford, as a
Rhodes Scholar
The Rhodes Scholarship is an international Postgraduate education, postgraduate award for students to study at the University of Oxford in Oxford, United Kingdom. The scholarship is open to people from all backgrounds around the world.
Esta ...
, Gorton completed an MPhil in Renaissance Literature and a DPhil on John Donne. She received the John Donne Society Award for Outstanding Publication in Donne Studies.
Career
In 1994 she was awarded the inaugural Vincent Buckley Poetry Prize.
Having previously worked as poetry editor for the ''
Australian Book Review
''Australian Book Review'' is an Australian arts and literary review. Created in 1961, ''ABR'' is an independent non-profit organisation that publishes articles, reviews, commentaries, essays, and new writing. The aims of the magazine are " ...
'', Gorton was selected as ABR Poet of the Month in October 2019. Gorton has contributed essays to the ''Australian Book Review'' and the ''
Sydney Review of Books
The ''Sydney Review of Books'' (''SRB'') is an online literary magazine established in 2013.
According to the journal's inaugural editor James Ley it was created to address shortcomings in Australian book reviews.
Awards
In 2019 ''SRB'' co ...
''. Since 2021 she has been poetry editor of '' Island Magazine''.
She is the granddaughter of the former Prime Minister
John Gorton
Sir John Grey Gorton (9 September 1911 – 19 May 2002) was an Australian politician, farmer and airman who served as the 19th Prime Minister of Australia, prime minister of Australia from 1968 to 1971. He held office as the leader of the leade ...
.
Writing
Gorton's poetry has been widely anthologised, including in ''The Turnrow Anthology of Contemporary Australian Poetry'',''The Best Australian Poems'' series (2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2014, 2015), ''Contemporary Australian Feminist Poetry'', the ''Anthology of Australian Prose Poetry'', the ''Poetry Magazine'' May 2016 selection of Australian poetry, edited by Robert Adamson, with photographs by
Juno Gemes
Juno Gemes (born 1944) is a Hungarian-born Australian activist and photographer, best known for her photography of Aboriginal Australians. and ''lyrikline''. Her poetry can also be found online at ''Cordite'' magazine.
Gorton's essays have been published in the ''
Sydney Review of Books
The ''Sydney Review of Books'' (''SRB'') is an online literary magazine established in 2013.
According to the journal's inaugural editor James Ley it was created to address shortcomings in Australian book reviews.
Awards
In 2019 ''SRB'' co ...
'' and ''
Australian Book Review
''Australian Book Review'' is an Australian arts and literary review. Created in 1961, ''ABR'' is an independent non-profit organisation that publishes articles, reviews, commentaries, essays, and new writing. The aims of the magazine are " ...
'', and in the essay collection ''Australian Face''. Gorton wrote the introductory essay for the Text Classics reissue of
Christina Stead
Christina Stead (17 July 190231 March 1983) was an Australian novelist and short-story writer acclaimed for her satirical wit and penetrating psychological characterisations. Christina Stead was a committed Marxist, although she was never a me ...
's novel ''The Little Hotel''. 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
The Art Gallery of New South Wales (AGNSW), founded as the New South Wales Academy of Art in 1872 and known as the National Art Gallery of New South Wales between 1883 and 1958, is located in The Domain, Sydney, Australia. It is the most import ...
.
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.'' She has also written ekphrastic poems for the catalogue of the 2010 Adelaide Biennial of Contemporary Art ''Before and After Science'', for the exhibition ''Conversations in Ellipsis'', and for the ''Melbourne Now'' limited edition volume from the
National Gallery of Victoria
The National Gallery of Victoria, popularly known as the NGV, is an art museum in Melbourne, Victoria (state), Victoria, Australia. Founded in 1861, it is Australia's oldest and list of most visited art museums in the world, most visited art mu ...
.
Gorton gave a poetry reading at TEDx Sydney in 2010.
Awards and recognition
Gorton's awards for poetry include the Victorian Premier's Prize for Poetry, the Vincent Buckley Poetry Prize, and the Philip Hodgins Memorial Medal. 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.
Her poetry books have also been shortlisted in the Prime Minister's Prize for Poetry, the Mary Gilmore Poetry Prize, the Melbourne Prize for Literature Best Writing Award, and the NSW Premier's Poetry Award.
* 1994 Vincent Buckley Poetry Prize
* 2008
Victorian Premier's Prize for Poetry The Victorian Premier's Prize for Poetry, formerly known as the C. J. Dennis Prize for Poetry, is a prize category in the annual Victorian Premier's Literary Award. As of 2011 it has an enumeration of 25,000. The winner of this category prize vies w ...
(then the C. J. Dennis Prize for Poetry) for ''Press Release''
* 2013
Queensland Literary Awards
The Queensland Literary Awards is an awards program established in 2012 by the Queensland literary community, funded by sponsors and administered by the State Library of Queensland. Like the former Queensland Premier's Literary Awards, the QLAs ...
Judith Wright Calanthe Award
The Arts Queensland Judith Wright Calanthe Award is awarded annually as part of the Queensland Premier's Literary Awards for a book of collected poems or for a single poem of substantial length published in book form. The prize honours the work of ...
New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards
The New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards, also known as the NSW Premier's Literary Awards, were first awarded in 1979. They are among the richest literary awards in Australia. Notable prizes include the Christina Stead Prize for Fiction, th ...
People's Choice Award for ''The Life of Houses''
* 2020
Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry
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.Wesley Michel Wright Prize
The Wesley Michel Wright Prize is an Australian poetry prize named in honour of Wesley Michel Wright in recognition of his bequest to the University of Melbourne. It is awarded annually.
History
Wesley Michel Wright graduated from the University ...
* 2023
Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry
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.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". In ''
The Sydney Morning Herald
''The Sydney Morning Herald'' (''SMH'') is a daily Tabloid (newspaper format), tabloid newspaper published in Sydney, Australia, and owned by Nine Entertainment. Founded in 1831 as the ''Sydney Herald'', the ''Herald'' is the oldest continuous ...
'', James Antoniou writes: "an important voice is breaking through here: assured, polyphonic and, for all its quietness, visionary".
On ''The Life of Houses''
In the ''
Sydney Review of Books
The ''Sydney Review of Books'' (''SRB'') is an online literary magazine established in 2013.
According to the journal's inaugural editor James Ley it was created to address shortcomings in Australian book reviews.
Awards
In 2019 ''SRB'' co ...
'',
Kerryn Goldsworthy
Dr. Kerryn Lee Goldsworthy (born 14 May 1953) is an Australian freelance writer and former academic.
Life and career
Goldsworthy has edited four anthologies of Australian writing. She has also written many articles, essays and reviews.
She has ...
writes about Gorton's debut novel ''The Life of Houses'': "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
In thermodynamics, heat is energy in transfer between a thermodynamic system and its surroundings by such mechanisms as thermal conduction, electromagnetic radiation, and friction, which are microscopic in nature, involving sub-atomic, ato ...
'', ''
Poetry
Poetry (from the Greek language, Greek word ''poiesis'', "making") is a form of literature, literary art that uses aesthetics, aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language to evoke meaning (linguistics), meanings in addition to, or in ...
'', ''The Best Australian Poems 2008'', ''The Best Australian Poems 2009'', ''The Best Australian Poems 2010'', and ''The Best Australian Poems 2012''.
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