Dorothy Hewett
Dorothy Hewett (1923–2002) was an Australian poet, novelist, and playwright. She produced three novels – Bobbin Up (1959), Neap Tide (1999), and The Toucher (1993) – twelve poetry collections, thirteen plays, and the first volume of her autobiography, Wild Card (1990). Hewett’s writing was strongly informed by her experiences in working-class Perth and Sydney. A long-term supporter of the Communist party, Hewett often challenged the sexual, religious, and political norms of her time.
In Tracy Ryan’s poems there are no safe houses, the walls of domesticity keep falling in and she is the clear-eyed tightrope walker negotiating a perilous foothold. Her lines zigzag across the page:
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The Hanging of Jean Lee is the third verse novel I have reviewed recently, except that this one is closer to the verse documentary.
As one might expect, it is a grim, tough story of the deterioration of a young woman’s life and its brutal end. It is divided into four sections with deliberately cold-hearted titles, Personal Pages, Entertainment Section, Crime Supplement and Death Notices. The Ha ... (read more)
This Version of Love
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