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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]

Education

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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Poetry

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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]

  • —— (2007). Press Release. Giramondo. ISBN 9781920882341.
  • —— (2012). Hotel Hyperion. Giramondo. ISBN 9781922146274.
  • —— (2019). Empirical. Giramondo. ISBN 9781925818116.
  • —— (2022). Miribilia. Giramondo. ISBN 9781922725301.

Novels

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Edited

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References

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  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. ^ a b "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. ^ a b c "Lisa Gorton (poet) - Australia - Poetry International". www.poetryinternational.org. Retrieved 25 June 2021.
  10. ^ a b c "Lisa Gorton". Red Room Poetry. Retrieved 25 June 2021.
  11. ^ a b c Sullivan, Jane (17 April 2015). "Lisa Gorton: Prize-winning poet writes her first novel". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 22 March 2020.
  12. ^ a b "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. ^ a b Rose, Peter, ed. (2008). The best Australian poems 2008. Melbourne: Black Inc. ISBN 978-1-86395-303-0. OCLC 277159164.
  18. ^ a b Adamson, Robert, ed. (2009). The best Australian poems 2009. Melbourne: Black Inc. ISBN 978-1-86395-452-5. OCLC 472529846.
  19. ^ a b 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. ^ a b 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. ^ a b "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. ^ a b "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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