Fiery Tales: The Correspondence of Gwen Harwood and Larry Sitsky

(Paperback)

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A revealing inside look at a brilliant creative partnership

This lively correspondence between celebrated poet Gwen Harwood and renowned composer Larry Sitsky, covering their creation of a series of acclaimed and at times controversial operas, gives an insight into a unique collaboration between two highly gifted Australian artists in the second half of the twentieth century. It brings to life the formation of six groundbreaking operatic works while giving a fascinating glimpse into the very different lives of two important Australian cultural figures.

Introduced by acclaimed biographer and scholar Ann-Marie Priest, these letters, collected together for the first time, reveal a dynamic creative partnership. Each chapter charts the development of a different work and offers historical and biographical context. The portrait that emerges is compelling, propulsive and illuminating, as the tensions and emerging affinities between the two artists set the stage for the creation of great works.

Praise for My Tongue is My Own

'Gwen Harwood, that excellent poet and critic, deserves a sympathetic and lively biography. Ann-Marie Priest, to her credit, has just written that book.' - Ann Blainey, winner of 2009 National Biography Award

'This is a big book but it is a genuine thrill to read, a page-turner and a classic expression of the biographical form. It's an astonishing achievement.' - Rick Morton

'A fearless, fascinating account of rule breakers, rule makers and rule enforcers.' - Laura Jean McKay

'Priest gives us the full complexity of the different faces in what seems sometimes to have been a darkly revelatory mirror.' - Peter Craven, Spectator Australia

'...essential reading for anyone interested in Australian poetry and/or the situation endured by creative women before our allegedly more enlightened times.' - The Canberra Times

'An accessible account of Harwood's life, often filtered through and framed by an examination of Harwood's complex relationships.' - The Conversation

'Ann-Marie Priest has captured completely the sprite-like nature of one of Australia's finest poets ...Through these pages, the great poet feels so alive.' - Judges' comments, National Biography Award

'Read this meticulous biography with Harwood's poetry in hand, and chase down every poem that Priest cites.' - The Sydney Morning Herald

'Gwen Harwood's life story shows the familiar tension felt by a gifted poet who is also a dedicated wife and mother, but it is more complex than that division suggests. [A] fine biography.' - Brenda Niall, author of True North: The Story of Mary and Elizabeth Durack and the multi-award-winning Mannix

'[An] accessible recounting of Gwen Harwood's crowded and emotionally vertiginous life, strengthened by many quotes from her witty correspondence. It should return readers to what matters: her poetry.' - Gig Ryan, award-winning poet

'Absolutely splendid ... [reveals] an extraordinary amount of research.' - Alison Hoddinott, author of Gwen Harwood: The Real and the Imagined World

'Admirably lucid...written with sensitivity.' - Gregory Kratzmann, editor of Gwen Harwood: Selected Poems

'An invaluable addition to the literature' - Sydney Review of Books

'A compelling biography' - Australian Book Review

'Priest's spirited biography does provide the occasion to hope we can be clear-sighted about the love stories and the ghost stories in the work of a poet.' - ArtsHub

Author Bio

Ann-Marie Priest is the author of My Tongue Is My Own: A Life of Gwen Harwood, which won the 2023 National Biography Award and the 2024 Magarey Medal for Biography. She is a recipient of the Hazel Rowley Literary Fellowship and the author of several books, including A Free Flame: Australian Women Writers and Vocation in the Twentieth Century, which was a finalist in the Dorothy Hewett Award. A senior lecturer at Central Queensland University, she has been a Visiting Scholar at the Centre for Life Writing at Oxford University and the Institute for Ecumenical and Cultural Research at St John's University, Minnesota. She lives in rural Queensland.