AustLit logo

AustLit

Lizz Murphy Lizz Murphy i(A3584 works by) (a.k.a. Liz Murphy)
Born: Established: 1950 Belfast,
c
Northern Ireland,
c
c
United Kingdom (UK),
c
Western Europe, Europe,
;
Gender: Female
Arrived in Australia: 1969
Heritage: Irish
The material on this page is available to AustLit subscribers. If you are a subscriber or are from a subscribing organisation, please log in to gain full access. To explore options for subscribing to this unique teaching, research, and publishing resource for Australian culture and storytelling, please contact us or find out more.

Works By

Preview all
Movies Lizz Murphy , sequence poetry
1 Climbing Back up Your Own Silk String Lizz Murphy , 2023 single work essay
— Appears in: Axon : Creative Explorations , July vol. 13 no. 1 2023;
'It all started with my playbook titled Typewriter: Used by a newspaper’s office. You might say Typewriter: Used by a newspaper’s office is a found object — I found it on a half-price table in the local chemist. I was delighted when I opened the package fully and discovered that the old-fashioned typewriter ‘plaque’ was actually the cover of a brown paper journal. You have to love brown paper.' (Introduction)
1 3 y separately published work icon The Wear of My Face Lizz Murphy , North Melbourne : Spinifex Press , 2021 23092043 2021 selected work poetry

'The sun is our closest star just average a middle-aged dwarf past its prime but still a few billion years to go and fierce is its heat Its domains: interior surface atmospheres inner corona outer corona Did someone say Corona?

'The Wear of My Face is an assemblage of passing lives and landscapes, fractured worlds and realities. There is splintered text and image, memory and dream, newscast and conversation. Women wicker first light, old men make things that glow, poets are standing stones, frontlines merge with tourist lines. Lizz Murphy weaves these elements into the strangeness of suburbia, the intensity of waiting rooms, bush stillness, and hopes for a leap of faith as at times she leaves a poem as fragmented as a hectic day or a bombed street. What may sometimes seem like misdemeanours of the mind, to Lizz they are simply the distractions and disturbances of daily life somewhere. There is a rehomed greyhound, a breezy scientist, ancient malleefowl, beige union reps and people in all their conundrums. You might travel on a seagull’s wing or wing through the aerosphere.'

Source : publisher's blurb

1 Dark Space i "The Travelling Insurance Man is home Shirt stain-striped", Lizz Murphy , 2021 single work poetry
— Appears in: Not Very Quiet , March no. 8 2021;
1 A Woman's Work i "A woman strips grass splits cane dreams the", Lizz Murphy , 2020 single work poetry
— Appears in: Australian Poetry Anthology 2020; (p. 16)
1 Diapause i "An amber striped curve with shrieking back legs is blown", Lizz Murphy , 2020 single work poetry
— Appears in: Not Very Quiet , March no. 6 2020;
1 If Only I Was an Owl i "All those extra vertebrae the ability to swivel your neck without cutting the blood off to the brain", Lizz Murphy , 2019 single work poetry
— Appears in: Axon : Creative Explorations , December vol. 9 no. 2 2019;
1 Ancient Bride of Night i "Bride of the night", Lizz Murphy , 2019 single work poetry
— Appears in: Axon : Creative Explorations , December vol. 9 no. 2 2019;
1 Athena i "Athena of the gray eye believed Owl revealed truths kept her on her blind side Owl with those cheek", Lizz Murphy , 2019 single work poetry
— Appears in: Axon : Creative Explorations , December vol. 9 no. 2 2019;
1 Noctua (Latin : Owl) Lizz Murphy , 2019 sequence poetry
— Appears in: Axon : Creative Explorations , December vol. 9 no. 2 2019;
1 Asylum i "I like lists", Lizz Murphy , 2018 single work poetry
— Appears in: Australian Poetry Anthology 2018; (p. 23) Other Terrain , June no. 5 2018;
1 Syria’s Children i "The quiet of an infant", Lizz Murphy , 2017 single work poetry
— Appears in: Not Very Quiet , September vol. 1 no. 2017; Other Terrain , June no. 5 2018;
1 War Zones : I Can Tell You What It's Like i "I can tell you what it’s like ears and eyes out on stalks neck", Lizz Murphy , 2017 single work poetry
— Appears in: Social Alternatives , vol. 36 no. 1 2017; (p. 46)
1 Drink Feckin Responsibly! i "They get straight to the point", Lizz Murphy , 2017 single work poetry
— Appears in: Rochford Street Review , April - June no. 22 2017;

Dedication: for Aroona and Mags

1 The Crook of My Arm i "In the crook of my arm is the put out of your eyes", Lizz Murphy , 2017 single work poetry
— Appears in: Rochford Street Review , April - June no. 22 2017;
1 Conundrums i "I am waiting in the waiting room with Mary Oliver", Lizz Murphy , 2017 single work poetry
— Appears in: Rochford Street Review , April - June no. 22 2017;
1 And as for Today i "The pattern on a man's head charcoal where", Lizz Murphy , 2017 single work poetry
— Appears in: Rochford Street Review , April - June no. 22 2017;
1 The World Divided i "dispossessed", Lizz Murphy , 2017 single work poetry
— Appears in: Rochford Street Review , April - June no. 22 2017;
1 I Suffer Not i "I suffer not the work of fern creeper forest to reach the coast with", Lizz Murphy , 2017 single work poetry
— Appears in: Rochford Street Review , April - June no. 22 2017;
1 y separately published work icon Shebird Lizz Murphy , Berry : PressPress , 2016 9964885 2016 selected work poetry

'Shebird is the woman or girl who wears the shroud of widows, guards the new grave, tastes gun, is paid two dollars a day or not paid at all. She is the child factory worker, the blackbird changing shadows, or the poet pondering black dogs and ravens or becoming the fox with mist on her breath.

In just a few words or lines Lizz Murphy cuts to the quick of a social issue or vividly captures a passing moment.' (Publication summary)

X