{{short description|Australian writer}} {{Use Australian English|date=October 2011}} {{Use dmy dates|date=September 2020}} {{Infobox writer <!-- for more information see :Template:Infobox writer/doc --> | image = Alison Croggon, February 2019 (cropped).jpg | name = Alison Croggon | birth_date = {{Birth year and age|1962}} | birth_place = Transvaal, South Africa | occupation = Novelist | nationality = Australian | genre = Fantasy, fiction, poetry, libretti | caption = Croggon at Perth Festival Writers Week in 2019 }} '''Alison Croggon''' (born 1962) is a contemporary Australian poet, playwright, fantasy novelist, and librettist.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |last= |title=Alison Croggon |url=https://www.austlit.edu.au/austlit/page/A11768 |access-date=2022-05-19 |website=AustLit: Discover Australian Stories |language=en}}</ref>
==Life and career== Born in the Transvaal, South Africa, Alison Croggon's family moved to England before settling in Australia, first in Ballarat then Melbourne.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Croggon, Alison (1962–)|url=https://www.poetrylibrary.edu.au/poets/croggon-alison|url-status=live|access-date=2021-04-25|website=Australian Poetry Library|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111222043012/http://www.poetrylibrary.edu.au/poets/croggon-alison|archive-date=22 December 2011}}</ref> She has worked as a journalist for the ''Sydney Morning Herald''. Her first volume of poetry, ''This is the Stone'', won the Anne Elder Award and the Mary Gilmore Prize.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2020-01-14 |title=Alison Croggon |url=https://www.chicagoreview.org/alison-croggon/ |access-date=2022-05-19 |website=Chicago Review |language=en-US}}</ref> Her novella ''Navigatio'' was highly commended in the 1995 The Australian/Vogel Literary Award.<ref>{{Cite web |last= |title=Navigatio {{!}} AustLit: Discover Australian Stories |url=https://www.austlit.edu.au/austlit/page/C38612 |access-date=2022-05-19 |website=www.austlit.edu.au |language=en}}</ref> Four novels of the fantasy genre series ''Pellinor'' have been published. She also founded and edits the online writing magazine ''Masthead''<ref>{{Cite web |last= |title=Masthead |url=https://www.austlit.edu.au/austlit/page/C456386 |access-date=2022-05-23 |website=AustLit: Discover Australian Stories |language=en}}</ref> and writes theatre criticism.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Alison Croggon |url=https://www.ausstage.edu.au/pages/contributor/231164 |access-date=2022-05-23 |website=AusStage}}</ref>
Croggon has also written libretti for Michael Smetanin's operas ''Gauguin: A Synthetic Life'' and ''The Burrow'', which premiered respectively at the 2000 Melbourne Festival and Perth Festival, produced by ChamberMade.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.ozarts.com.au/artists/artists_literature/alison_croggon_/ | title=Artist Profile: Alison Croggon | publisher=OzArts Online | accessdate=17 January 2007 | url-status=dead | archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20070928045448/http://www.ozarts.com.au/artists/artists_literature/alison_croggon_/ | archivedate=28 September 2007}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Alison Croggon – 25 years interview |url=https://chambermade.org/25-years/alison-croggon/ |access-date=2022-05-19 |website=Chamber Made Opera |language=en |archive-date=23 May 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220523022035/https://chambermade.org/25-years/alison-croggon/ |url-status=dead }}</ref> In 2014, Iain Grandage (composer) and Croggon (librettist) collaborated to present ''The Riders'', based on Tim Winton's novel ''The Riders''. Its world premiere was in Melbourne.<ref>{{Cite web |last= |first= |date=2013-10-29 |title=The Riders |url=https://www.victorianopera.com.au/season/the-riders |access-date=2022-05-19 |website=Victorian Opera |language=en |archive-date=17 May 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220517171948/https://www.victorianopera.com.au/season/the-riders |url-status=dead }}</ref>
Other poems by Croggon have been set to music by Smetanin, Christine McCombe, Margaret Legge-Wilkinson, and Andrée Greenwell.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Alison Croggon |url=https://www.australianmusiccentre.com.au/artist/croggon-alison |access-date=2022-05-23 |website=Australian Music Centre}}</ref> Her plays have been produced by the Melbourne Festival, The Red Shed Company (Adelaide) and ABC Radio.
As of 2023, she is arts editor at ''The Saturday Paper''.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2019-05-01 |title=Alison Croggon |url=https://www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/contributor/alison-croggon |access-date=2023-05-03 |website=The Saturday Paper |language=en}}</ref>
She currently lives in Melbourne, Australia with her husband Daniel Keene and three children.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Croggon, Alison 1962– |url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/children/scholarly-magazines/croggon-alison-1962 |access-date=2022-05-23 |website=Encyclopedia.com}}</ref>
==Awards and nominations== * 2009 Pascall Prize for Critical Writing for her blog ''Theatre Notes''.<ref name=":0" /> * 2023 shortlisted for NSW Premier's Translation Prize for ''Duino Elegies''.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2023-02-08 |title=Duino Elegies |url=https://www.sl.nsw.gov.au/awards/nsw-premiers-translation-prize/2023-shortlisted-duino-elegies-translated-alison-croggon |access-date=2023-03-01 |website=State Library of NSW}}</ref>
==Works== ===Poetry=== * {{cite book |title= This is the Stone |year= 1991 |publisher= Penguin Books Australia |isbn= 0-14-058666-0}} * {{cite book |title= The Blue Gate |year= 1997 |publisher= Black Pepper Press |isbn= 1-876044-18-7}} * {{cite book |title= Mnemosyne| year= 2001|publisher=Wild Honey Press|isbn= 1-903090-31-8}} * {{cite book |title= Attempts at Being |year= 2002|publisher= Salt Publishing|isbn= 1-876857-42-0}} [https://web.archive.org/web/20070927233858/http://www.saltpublishing.com/assets/samples/1876857420samp.pdf excerpt] * {{cite book |title= The Common Flesh: Poems 1980–2002 |year= 2003 |publisher= Arc|isbn= 1-900072-72-6}} * {{cite book |title= November Burning|year= 2004|publisher= Vagabond}} * {{cite book |title= Ash|publisher= Cusp Books}} * {{cite book |title= New and Selected Poems 1991–2017|year= 2017|publisher= Newport Street Books}} * {{cite book |title= Theatre |publisher= Salt Publishing}}
=== Memoir === * ''Monsters: A reckoning''. Scribe. 2021. {{ISBN|9781925713398}}
===Novella=== * {{cite book |title= Navigatio|year= 1996 |publisher= Black Pepper|isbn= 1-876044-09-8}}
===Fantasy novels=== ====The Books of Pellinor==== * {{cite book |title= The Gift|year= 2003|publisher= Penguin|isbn= 0-14-029343-4}} (published in the US as ''The Naming'' (Candlewick Press, {{ISBN|0-7636-2639-2}}) * {{cite book |title= The Riddle|year= 2004|publisher= Penguin|isbn= 1-84428-952-4}} * {{cite book |title= The Crow|year= 2006|publisher= Penguin|isbn= 1-4063-0137-X}} * {{cite book |title= The Singing|year= 2008|publisher= Penguin|isbn= 978-0-670-07238-5}} * {{cite book |title= The Bone Queen|year= 2016|publisher= Candlewick|isbn= 978-0763689742}} (Cadvan's Story: Prequel to the Books of Pellinor)
====Standalone==== * {{cite book |title=Black Spring|year= 2012|publisher= Walter Books|isbn= 978-1921977480}} * {{cite book |title=The Threads of Magic|year= 2020|publisher= Walter Books|isbn= 978-1406384741}}
===Libretti=== * (1995) ''The Burrow'', {{ISBN|0-949697-25-7}} * (2000) ''Gauguin (a synthetic life)'' * (2014) ''The Riders''
=== Plays === * ''Monologues for an Apocalypse'' (2000) * ''Blue'' (2001) * ''My Dearworthy Darling'' (2019)
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== {{Commons category}} * {{Official website}} * [https://theatrenotes.blogspot.com/ Theatre Notes Weblog] * [https://poetryarchive.org/explore/?key=alison+croggon Recordings of poems] at Poetry Archive * [http://www.argotistonline.co.uk/Alison%20Croggon.htm Interview] * {{ISFDB name|id=Alison_Croggon|name=Alison Croggon}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Croggon, Alison}} Category:1962 births Category:20th-century Australian journalists Category:20th-century Australian novelists Category:20th-century Australian poets Category:20th-century Australian women poets Category:20th-century Australian women novelists Category:20th-century Australian essayists Category:21st-century Australian journalists Category:21st-century Australian women journalists Category:21st-century Australian novelists Category:21st-century Australian poets Category:21st-century Australian women poets Category:21st-century Australian women novelists Category:21st-century Australian essayists Category:21st-century Australian memoirists Category:Australian activists Category:Australian women activists Category:Australian women essayists Category:Australian fantasy writers Category:Australian opera librettists Category:Australian speculative fiction writers Category:Australian theatre critics Category:Australian women theatre critics Category:Australian women bloggers Category:Australian women dramatists and playwrights Category:Bloggers from Melbourne Category:Literacy and society theorists Category:Living people Category:Meanjin people Category:Media critics Category:Women opera librettists Category:Australian women science fiction and fantasy writers Category:Australian science fiction writers Category:Writers about activism and social change