Barry Hill (Australian writer)
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Barry Hill | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1943 Melbourne, Victoria |
| Occupation | Poet |
| Language | English |
| Nationality | Australian |
| Years active | 1966- |
| Notable awards | 1990 Anne Elder Award; 1991 New South Wales Premier's Literary Award - Non-Fiction; 1994 New South Wales Premier's Literary Award - Poetry; 2004 National Biography Award |
Barry Hill (born 1943) is an Australian historian, writer, and academic.[1]
He has written poetry, fiction, non-fiction, and libretti. He is known for his biography of anthropologist Ted Strehlow, called Broken Song: T G H Strehlow and Aboriginal Possession, published in 2002.
Hill was born in Melbourne.[2]
He studied at the University of Melbourne, gaining his Bachelor of Arts (BA), Bachelor of Education (BEd) and a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) and from there went to London, where he gained his Master of Arts (MA) degree from the University of London.[1]
Writing career
Hill has worked in both Melbourne and London. In London he worked for the Times Literary Supplement.[1]
In 1975 Hill became a full-time writer. Between 1998 and 2008 he was poetry editor of The Australian newspaper.[1]
Stage
Hill was part of the cast in the first public performance of Kenneth G. Ross's important Australian play Breaker Morant: A Play in Two Acts, presented by the Melbourne Theatre Company at the Melbourne Athenaeum on 2 February 1978.[3]
Performance works
Hill has produced performance works for radio, including Desert Canticles, that premiered on ABC Radio on 5 February 2001.[4][5] Hill is quoted as saying the piece was inspired by the following:
"Desert Canticles arises out of a marriage, a decade of travelling, and some years writing the literary biography of T.G.H. Strehlow out of Central Australia. I was writing my own poems out of love and the landscape, while trying to fathom Strehlow's great achievement in Songs of Central Australia. So the notion of translation as a metaphor for relationship – with place, with others, and with songs of different cultures (Hebraic, Buddhist, and Aboriginal) became a natural one upon which to thread a radio work."[4]
Awards
- 1991 New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards Douglas Stewart Prize for Non-Fiction, for Sitting In[6]
- 1994 New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry for Ghosting William Buckley[7]
- 2003 Victorian Premier's Literary Award Non-Fiction award for Broken Song: T G H Strehlow and Aboriginal Possession[8]
- 2004 New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards NSW Premier's Biennial Prize for Literary Scholarship for Broken Song: T.G.H. Strehlow and Aboriginal Possession[9]
- 2004 Victorian Premier's Literary Award, the Alfred Deakin Prize for an Essay Advancing Public Debate for The Mood We're In: circa Australia Day 2004[10]
- 2004 National Biography Award for Broken Song: T G H Strehlow and Aboriginal Possession[11]
- 2004 Tasmania Pacific Bicentenary History Award for Broken Song: T G H Strehlow and Aboriginal Possession[12]
- 2005 Victorian Community History Awards for Best Print/Publication, with and the Borough of Queenscliffe, for The Enduring Rip: A History of Queenscliffe[13]
- 2012 Shortlisted for 2012 Forward Prize for Naked Clay[14]
Personal life
Hill is married to Rose Bygrave, a member of the band Goanna, and lives in Queenscliffe, Victoria.[15]
