Gabrielle Carey

Gabrielle Carey started writing as a teenager and published her first co-written book, Puberty Blues, in 1979. She has since written, In My Father’s House, a biography of her father, Waiting Room, a memoir of her mother, and a book of personal essays, So Many Selves. Her most recent book, Moving Among Strangers, is an exploration of her family’s connections with the Australian novelist and poet, Randolph Stow. It was the joint winner of the 2014 Prime Minister’s Award for Non-Fiction and short-listed for the 2015 National Biography Award. Carey teaches non-fiction writing at the University of Technology, Sydney.

NLA Australian Voices Essay - 'Divine Language' by Gabrielle Carey

May 1993, no. 150 • 18 November 2022

In pre-Conquest Mexico, the Nahua people conceived of literature as a symbol of wisdom and the scribe was recognised as a sage, a teacher, and a philosopher. Is the modern writer only an entertainer, or is it still possible for literature to embody the truths beyond the everyday? When I told a friend I was thinking of writing an essay on pre-Hispanic literature he said, ‘Forget it. You’d have ... (read more)