Alison Croggon
Alison Croggon | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Croggon at Perth Festival Writers Week in 2019 | |
| Born | 1962 (age 62) Transvaal, South Africa |
| Occupation | Novelist |
| Nationality | Australian |
| Genre | Fantasy, fiction, poetry, libretti |
Alison Croggon (born 1962) is a contemporary Australian poet, playwright, fantasy novelist, and librettist.[1]
Life and career[edit]
Born in the Transvaal, South Africa, Alison Croggon's family moved to England before settling in Australia, first in Ballarat then Melbourne.[2] She has worked as a journalist for the Sydney Morning Herald. Her first volume of poetry, This is the Stone, won the Anne Elder Award and the Mary Gilmore Prize.[3] Her novella Navigatio was highly commended in the 1995 The Australian/Vogel Literary Award.[4] Four novels of the fantasy genre series Pellinor have been published. She also founded and edits the online writing magazine Masthead[5] and writes theatre criticism.[6]
Croggon has also written libretti for Michael Smetanin's operas Gauguin: A Synthetic Life and The Burrow, which premiered respectively at the 2000 Melbourne Festival and Perth Festival, produced by ChamberMade.[7][8] In 2014, Iain Grandage (composer) and Croggon (librettist) collaborated to present The Riders, based on Tim Winton's novel The Riders. Its world premiere was in Melbourne.[9]
Other poems by Croggon have been set to music by Smetanin, Christine McCombe, Margaret Legge-Wilkinson, and Andrée Greenwell.[10] Her plays have been produced by the Melbourne Festival, The Red Shed Company (Adelaide) and ABC Radio.
As of 2023, she is arts editor at The Saturday Paper.[11]
She currently lives in Melbourne, Australia with her husband Daniel Keene and three children.[12]
Awards and nominations[edit]
- 2009 Pascall Prize for Critical Writing for her blog Theatre Notes.[1]
- 2023 shortlisted for NSW Premier's Translation Prize for Duino Elegies.[13]
Works[edit]
Poetry[edit]
- This is the Stone. Penguin Books Australia. 1991. ISBN 0-14-058666-0.
- The Blue Gate. Black Pepper Press. 1997. ISBN 1-876044-18-7.
- Mnemosyne. Wild Honey Press. 2001. ISBN 1-903090-31-8.
- Attempts at Being. Salt Publishing. 2002. ISBN 1-876857-42-0. excerpt
- The Common Flesh: Poems 1980–2002. Arc. 2003. ISBN 1-900072-72-6.
- November Burning. Vagabond. 2004.
- Ash. Cusp Books.
- New and Selected Poems 1991–2017. Newport Street Books. 2017.
- Theatre. Salt Publishing.
Memoir[edit]
- Monsters: A reckoning. Scribe. 2021. ISBN 9781925713398
Novella[edit]
- Navigatio. Black Pepper. 1996. ISBN 1-876044-09-8.
Fantasy novels[edit]
The Books of Pellinor[edit]
- The Gift. Penguin. 2003. ISBN 0-14-029343-4. (published in the US as The Naming (Candlewick Press, ISBN 0-7636-2639-2)
- The Riddle. Penguin. 2004. ISBN 1-84428-952-4.
- The Crow. Penguin. 2006. ISBN 1-4063-0137-X.
- The Singing. Penguin. 2008. ISBN 978-0-670-07238-5.
- The Bone Queen. Candlewick. 2016. ISBN 978-0763689742. (Cadvan's Story: Prequel to the Books of Pellinor)
Standalone[edit]
- Black Spring. Walter Books. 2012. ISBN 978-1921977480.
- The Threads of Magic. Walter Books. 2020. ISBN 978-1406384741.
Libretti[edit]
- (1995) The Burrow, ISBN 0-949697-25-7
- (2000) Gauguin (a synthetic life)
- (2014) The Riders
Plays[edit]
- Monologues for an Apocalypse (2000)
- Blue (2001)
- My Dearworthy Darling (2019)
References[edit]
- ^ a b "Alison Croggon". AustLit: Discover Australian Stories. Retrieved 19 May 2022.
- ^ "Croggon, Alison (1962–)". Australian Poetry Library. Archived from the original on 22 December 2011. Retrieved 25 April 2021.
- ^ "Alison Croggon". Chicago Review. 14 January 2020. Retrieved 19 May 2022.
- ^ "Navigatio | AustLit: Discover Australian Stories". www.austlit.edu.au. Retrieved 19 May 2022.
- ^ "Masthead". AustLit: Discover Australian Stories. Retrieved 23 May 2022.
- ^ "Alison Croggon". AusStage. Retrieved 23 May 2022.
- ^ "Artist Profile: Alison Croggon". OzArts Online. Archived from the original on 28 September 2007. Retrieved 17 January 2007.
- ^ "Alison Croggon – 25 years interview". Chamber Made Opera. Retrieved 19 May 2022.
- ^ "The Riders". Victorian Opera. 29 October 2013. Retrieved 19 May 2022.
- ^ "Alison Croggon". Australian Music Centre. Retrieved 23 May 2022.
- ^ "Alison Croggon". The Saturday Paper. 1 May 2019. Retrieved 3 May 2023.
- ^ "Croggon, Alison 1962–". Encyclopedia.com. Retrieved 23 May 2022.
- ^ "Duino Elegies". State Library of NSW. 8 February 2023. Retrieved 1 March 2023.
External links[edit]
- Official website
- Theatre Notes Weblog
- Recordings of poems at Poetry Archive
- Interview
- Alison Croggon at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Academics | |
| People | |
- 1962 births
- 20th-century Australian journalists
- 20th-century Australian non-fiction writers
- 20th-century Australian novelists
- 20th-century Australian poets
- 20th-century Australian women writers
- 20th-century essayists
- 21st-century Australian journalists
- 21st-century Australian women journalists
- 21st-century Australian non-fiction writers
- 21st-century Australian novelists
- 21st-century Australian poets
- 21st-century Australian women writers
- 21st-century essayists
- 21st-century memoirists
- Australian activists
- Australian essayists
- Australian women activists
- Australian women essayists
- Australian fantasy writers
- Australian memoirists
- Australian opera librettists
- Australian speculative fiction writers
- Australian theatre critics
- Australian women theatre critics
- Australian women bloggers
- Australian women dramatists and playwrights
- Australian women novelists
- Australian women poets
- Bloggers from Melbourne
- Literacy and society theorists
- Living people
- Meanjin people
- Media critics
- Women opera librettists
- Australian women science fiction and fantasy writers
- Writers about activism and social change