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'Thea Astley: Inventing Her Own Weather is the long-overdue biography of Australian author Thea Astley (1925–2004). Over a fifty-year writing career, Astley published more than a dozen novels and short story collections, including The Acolyte, The Slow Natives and, finally, Drylands in 1999. She was the first person to win multiple Miles Franklin awards – she won four. With many of her works published internationally, Astley was a trailblazer for women writers. In her personal life, she was renowned for her dry wit, eccentricity and compassion.
'Karen Lamb has drawn on an unparalleled range of interviews and correspondence to create a detailed picture of Thea the woman, as well as Astley the writer. She has sought to understand Astley's private world and how that shaped the distinctive body of work that is Thea Astley's literary legacy.'
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Other Formats
- Also large print; sound recording
Works about this Work
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Will the Real Subject Please Stand Up? Autobiographical Voices in Biography
2021
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Life Writing , vol. 18 no. 1 2021; (p. 25-30) Essays in Life Writing 2021; (p. 24-29)'Biographers exist in a tight partnership with their chosen subject and there is often during the research and writing an equivalent reflective personal journey for the biographer. This is generally obscured, buried among an overwhelming magnitude of sources while the biographer is simultaneously developing the all-important ‘relationship’ required to sustain the narrative journey ahead. Questions and selections beset the biographer, usually about access to, or veracity of, sources but perhaps there are more personal questions that could be put to the biographer. The many works on the craft of biography or collections about the life-writing journey tell only some of this tale. It is not often enough, however, that we acknowledge how biography can be unusually ‘double-voiced’ in communicating a strong sense of the teller in the tale: the biographer’s own life experience usually does lead them to the biography, but also influences the shaping of the work. These are still ‘tales of craft’ in one sense, but autobiographical reflections in another. Perhaps this very personal insight can only be attempted in the ‘afterlife’ of biography; the quiet moments and years that follow such consuming works. In this article, I reflect on this unusually emotional form of life writing.' (Publication abstract)
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[Review Essay] The Fiction of Thea Astley
2017
single work
essay
— Appears in: Journal of Australian Studies , May vol. 41 no. 2 2017; (p. 268-269) 'Thea Astley published sixteen novels and collections of short stories between 1958 and 1999. She died in 2004, a week ahead of her eightieth birthday, but she blazes again, in all her fiercely compassionate crankiness, in Susan Sheridan’s analysis of her fictions and in Karen Lamb's biography, Inventing Her Own Weather (2015). These two books—Sheridan on the work and Lamb on the life—are essential companions for a full appreciation of Astley and, more generally, twentieth-century Australian literary culture.' (Introduction) -
[Review] Thea Astley : Inventing Her Own Weather
2016
single work
review
— Appears in: JASAL , vol. 16 no. 1 2016;
— Review of Thea Astley : Inventing Her Own Weather 2015 single work biography -
Top Biographies Battle for $25,000 National Prize
2016
single work
column
— Appears in: The Age , 5 July 2016; (p. 10) Biography is a growing genre in Australian writing and, according to historian Peter Cochrane, that is a sign of a healthy society. -
Three Biographies
2016
single work
review
— Appears in: Southerly , vol. 75 no. 2 2016; (p. 268-270)
— Review of Thea Astley : Inventing Her Own Weather 2015 single work biography ; One Life : My Mother's Story 2015 single work biography ; Wild Bleak Bohemia : Marcus Clarke, Adam Lindsay Gordon and Henry Kendall - A Documentary 2014 single work biography
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Review : Thea Astley : Inventing Her Own Weather
2015
single work
review
— Appears in: Books + Publishing , vol. 94 no. 3 2015; (p. 24)
— Review of Thea Astley : Inventing Her Own Weather 2015 single work biography -
A Genius Who Confronted Her Readers
A Fine Portrait of a Literary Genius
2015
single work
review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 16-17 May 2015; (p. 30) The Canberra Times , 16 May 2015; (p. 15) The Saturday Age , 16-17 May 2015; (p. 26)
— Review of Thea Astley : Inventing Her Own Weather 2015 single work biography -
Portrait of a Private Lady
2015
single work
review
— Appears in: The Courier-Mail , 16 May 2015; (p. 18)
— Review of Thea Astley : Inventing Her Own Weather 2015 single work biography -
Glorious Paradox
2015
single work
review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 13-14 June 2015; (p. 16-17)
— Review of Thea Astley : Inventing Her Own Weather 2015 single work biography -
Karen Lamb : Thea Astley: Inventing Her Own Weather
2015
single work
review
— Appears in: The Newtown Review of Books , June 2015;
— Review of Thea Astley : Inventing Her Own Weather 2015 single work biography -
Top Biographies Battle for $25,000 National Prize
2016
single work
column
— Appears in: The Age , 5 July 2016; (p. 10) Biography is a growing genre in Australian writing and, according to historian Peter Cochrane, that is a sign of a healthy society. -
[Review Essay] The Fiction of Thea Astley
2017
single work
essay
— Appears in: Journal of Australian Studies , May vol. 41 no. 2 2017; (p. 268-269) 'Thea Astley published sixteen novels and collections of short stories between 1958 and 1999. She died in 2004, a week ahead of her eightieth birthday, but she blazes again, in all her fiercely compassionate crankiness, in Susan Sheridan’s analysis of her fictions and in Karen Lamb's biography, Inventing Her Own Weather (2015). These two books—Sheridan on the work and Lamb on the life—are essential companions for a full appreciation of Astley and, more generally, twentieth-century Australian literary culture.' (Introduction) -
Will the Real Subject Please Stand Up? Autobiographical Voices in Biography
2021
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Life Writing , vol. 18 no. 1 2021; (p. 25-30) Essays in Life Writing 2021; (p. 24-29)'Biographers exist in a tight partnership with their chosen subject and there is often during the research and writing an equivalent reflective personal journey for the biographer. This is generally obscured, buried among an overwhelming magnitude of sources while the biographer is simultaneously developing the all-important ‘relationship’ required to sustain the narrative journey ahead. Questions and selections beset the biographer, usually about access to, or veracity of, sources but perhaps there are more personal questions that could be put to the biographer. The many works on the craft of biography or collections about the life-writing journey tell only some of this tale. It is not often enough, however, that we acknowledge how biography can be unusually ‘double-voiced’ in communicating a strong sense of the teller in the tale: the biographer’s own life experience usually does lead them to the biography, but also influences the shaping of the work. These are still ‘tales of craft’ in one sense, but autobiographical reflections in another. Perhaps this very personal insight can only be attempted in the ‘afterlife’ of biography; the quiet moments and years that follow such consuming works. In this article, I reflect on this unusually emotional form of life writing.' (Publication abstract)
Awards
- 2016 longlisted CHASS Australia Prizes — Australia Book Prize
- 2016 shortlisted National Biography Award
- 2016 shortlisted ASAL Awards — The Australian Historical Association Awards — Magarey Medal for Biography
- 2016 shortlisted Victorian Premier's Literary Awards — Award for Non-Fiction
- 2016 shortlisted Prime Minister's Literary Awards — Non-Fiction