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'''Thea Astley''' ([[August 25]] [[1925]] - [[August 17]] [[2004]]) was an [[Australia]]n [[novelist]] and short story writer. She was a prolific writer who was published for over 40 years from 1958. At the time of her death, she had won more [[Miles Franklin Award]]s, Australia's major literary award, than any other writer. As well as being a writer, she taught at all levels of education - primary, secondary and tertiary.
'''Thea Astley''' ([[25 August]] [[1925]] - [[17 August]] [[2004]]) was an [[Australia]]n [[novelist]] and short story writer. She was a prolific writer who was published for over 40 years from 1958. At the time of her death, she had won more [[Miles Franklin Award]]s, Australia's major literary award, than any other writer. As well as being a writer, she taught at all levels of education - primary, secondary and tertiary.


==Life==
==Life==


Born in [[Brisbane]] and educated at [[All Hallows' School]], Astley studied arts at the [[University of Queensland]] then trained to become a [[teacher]].<ref name="street">[http://203.147.135.214/forms/factfiles/thea.pdf Thea Astley] (Jessie Street National Women's Library) Accessed: [[January 22]], [[2007]].</ref> After marrying Jack Gregson in 1948, she moved to [[Sydney]] where she taught at various high schools, as well as keep up with her writing. She tutored at [[Macquarie University]] from 1968 to 1980, before retiring to write full time, at which time she and her husband moved to [[Kuranda]] in North Queensland. In the late 1980s they moved to Nowra on the NSW South Coast, and, after her husband's death in 2003, she moved to Byron Bay to be near her son, Ed Gregson.
Born in [[Brisbane]] and educated at [[All Hallows' School]], Astley studied arts at the [[University of Queensland]] then trained to become a [[teacher]].<ref name="street">[http://203.147.135.214/forms/factfiles/thea.pdf Thea Astley] (Jessie Street National Women's Library) Accessed: [[22 January]] [[2007]].</ref> After marrying Jack Gregson in 1948, she moved to [[Sydney]] where she taught at various high schools, as well as keep up with her writing. She tutored at [[Macquarie University]] from 1968 to 1980, before retiring to write full time, at which time she and her husband moved to [[Kuranda]] in North Queensland. In the late 1980s they moved to Nowra on the NSW South Coast, and, after her husband's death in 2003, she moved to Byron Bay to be near her son, Ed Gregson.


In addition to her passion for writing, she and her husband had a great love of music, particularly jazz and chamber music.<ref> Baker (1986) p. 32</ref> They had one son, a musician. Thea Astley died in [[Byron Bay]] in 2004.
In addition to her passion for writing, she and her husband had a great love of music, particularly jazz and chamber music.<ref> Baker (1986) p. 32</ref> They had one son, a musician. Thea Astley died in [[Byron Bay]] in 2004.
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|ALTERNATIVE NAMES=
|ALTERNATIVE NAMES=
|SHORT DESCRIPTION=Twentieth century [[Australia]]n [[novelist]]
|SHORT DESCRIPTION=Twentieth century [[Australia]]n [[novelist]]
|DATE OF BIRTH=[[August 25]] [[1925]]
|DATE OF BIRTH=[[25 August]] [[1925]]
|PLACE OF BIRTH=[[Brisbane]], [[Queensland]], [[Australia]]
|PLACE OF BIRTH=[[Brisbane]], [[Queensland]], [[Australia]]
|DATE OF DEATH=[[August 17]] [[2004]]
|DATE OF DEATH=[[17 August]] [[2004]]
|PLACE OF DEATH=[[Byron Bay]], [[New South Wales]], [[Australia]]
|PLACE OF DEATH=[[Byron Bay]], [[New South Wales]], [[Australia]]
}}
}}

Revision as of 23:53, 6 October 2007

Thea Beatrice May Astley
Born(1925-08-25)25 August 1925
Australia Brisbane
Died17 August 2004(2004-08-17) (aged 78)
Australia Byron Bay
Occupation(s)Novelist and short story writer
SpouseJack Gregson
ChildrenEd Gregson

Thea Astley (25 August 1925 - 17 August 2004) was an Australian novelist and short story writer. She was a prolific writer who was published for over 40 years from 1958. At the time of her death, she had won more Miles Franklin Awards, Australia's major literary award, than any other writer. As well as being a writer, she taught at all levels of education - primary, secondary and tertiary.

Life

Born in Brisbane and educated at All Hallows' School, Astley studied arts at the University of Queensland then trained to become a teacher.[1] After marrying Jack Gregson in 1948, she moved to Sydney where she taught at various high schools, as well as keep up with her writing. She tutored at Macquarie University from 1968 to 1980, before retiring to write full time, at which time she and her husband moved to Kuranda in North Queensland. In the late 1980s they moved to Nowra on the NSW South Coast, and, after her husband's death in 2003, she moved to Byron Bay to be near her son, Ed Gregson.

In addition to her passion for writing, she and her husband had a great love of music, particularly jazz and chamber music.[2] They had one son, a musician. Thea Astley died in Byron Bay in 2004.

Career and style

Her novels won four Miles Franklin Awards and in 1989 she won the Patrick White Award for services to Australian literature. She was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Queensland in 1989. Much of her writing is set in and influenced by her childhood in Queensland, which she has described as “the place where the tall yarn happens, where it is lived out by people who are the dramatis personae of the tall yarns.”[1]

According to AusLit Gateway News she was "revered for her meticulous and controlled use of language and her portrayals of the Queensland landscape and character; she was renowned for her quick wit, raspy voice, and ever-present cigarettes".[3] Her reputation is one of being a 'metaphoric' writer, which resulted in a style which didn't suit all readers. In an interview with Candida Baker, Astley quotes Helen Garner as saying "I simply hate her style"[4] and goes on to say "I can't resist using imagistic language. I like it. I really don't do it to annoy reviewers".[5] And there are many who love Astley's writing - for its style and for the subject matter - such as writer Kerryn Goldsworthy, who said "I love its densely woven grammar, its ingrained humour, its uncompromising politics, and its undimmed outrage at human folly, stupidity and greed".[6]Goldsworthy continues to say that "her body of work [over four decades] adds up to a protracted study in the way that full-scale violence and tragedy can flower extravagantly from the withered seeds of malice and resentment ... The perps [in Drylands] are all her usual suspects: racists, developers, hypocritical gung-ho civic go-gooders, and assorted unreconstructed male-supremacist swine".[7]

Academic and literary editor, Delys Bird, summarises her themes as follows: "Astley's novels and stories typically present a sceptical view of social relationships among ordinary people, one often coloured by her former Catholicism, and directed through the struggles of her self-conscious protagonists to find an expressive space within their uncongenial surroundings".[8]

Awards and Nominations

Bibliography

Novels

  • Girl with a Monkey (1958)
  • A Descant for Gossips (1960)
  • The Well Dressed Explorer (1962)
  • The Slow Natives (1965)
  • A Boat Load of Home Folk (1968)
  • The Acolyte (1972)
  • A Kindness Cup (1974)
  • An Item from the Late News (1982)
  • Beachmasters (1985)
  • It's Raining in Mango (1987)
  • Reaching Tin River (1990) REVIEW
  • Vanishing Points (1992)
  • Coda (1994)
  • The Multiple Effects of Rainshadow (1996)
  • Drylands (1999)

Short stories

  • Hunting the Wild Pineapple (1979)
  • Collected Stories (1997)

Notes

  1. ^ a b Thea Astley (Jessie Street National Women's Library) Accessed: 22 January 2007.
  2. ^ Baker (1986) p. 32
  3. ^ AusLit Gateway News 2004
  4. ^ Baker (1986) p. 37
  5. ^ Baker (1986) p. 47
  6. ^ Goldsworthy (1999)
  7. ^ Goldsworthy (1999)
  8. ^ Bird (2000) p. 187
  9. ^ http://www.itsanhonour.gov.au/index.cfm
  10. ^ http://www.itsanhonour.gov.au/index.cfm

References


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