Patricia Wrightson

{{Short description|Australian children's writer (1921–2010)}} {{EngvarB|date=August 2014}} {{Use dmy dates|date=August 2014}} {{infobox writer | name = Patricia Wrightson | image = File:Patricia_Wrightson_author_photograph.jpg | alt = | caption = Photograph of Patricia Wrightson, née Alice Patricia Furlonger | pseudonym = Patricia Wrightson | birth_name = Alice Patricia Furlonger | birth_date = {{birth date|df=yes|1921|07|19}} | birth_place = [[Lismore, New South Wales]], Australia | death_date = {{death date and age|df=yes|2010|03|15|1921|07|19}} | death_place = Lismore, New South Wales, Australia | resting_place = | occupation = Writer, editor | language = English | nationality = Australian | period = 1955–2004 | genre = Children's literature, [[folklore]], [[magic realism]] | subject = [[Fantasy]] (nonfiction) | notableworks =  | awards = {{awd |[[Hans Christian Andersen Award]] for Writing |1988}} {{awd |[[Order of the British Empire]]}}  }}

'''Patricia Wrightson [[Officer of the Order of the British Empire|OBE]]''' (19 June 1921 – 15 March 2010) was an Australian writer of several highly regarded and influential children's books.<ref name=Times/> Employing a [[magic realism]] style, her books, including the award-winning ''[[The Nargun and the Stars]]'' (1973), were among the first Australian books for children to draw on [[Australian Aboriginal mythology]].<ref name=Guardian/> Her 27 books have been published in 16 languages.<ref name=mcguirk/>

For her "lasting contribution" as a children's writer, she received the biennial [[Hans Christian Andersen Medal]] in 1986.<ref name=andersen/><ref name=ibby-wrightson/>

==Personal life== Wrightson was born Patricia Furlonger on 19 June 1921 in [[Bangalow]],<ref>{{Cite web |title=Patricia Wrightson |url=https://www.textpublishing.com.au/authors/patriciawrightson |access-date=2022-02-28 |website=Text Publishing}}</ref> near [[Lismore, New South Wales|Lismore]], New South Wales, the third of six children. Her father was a country solicitor.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Austlit |title=Patricia Wrightson {{!}} AustLit: Discover Australian Stories |url=https://www.austlit.edu.au/austlit/page/A26709 |access-date=2022-02-28 |website=www.austlit.edu.au |language=en}}</ref> She was formerly educated through the State Correspondence School for Isolated Children and St Catherine's College,<ref name=Guardian/><ref name=Atkins>{{cite web|last1=Atkins|first1=Jonathan|title=Australian author Patricia Wrightson dies|url=http://www.abc.net.au/local/stories/2010/03/25/2855942.htm|website=ABC North Coast NSW|access-date=25 August 2014}}</ref> and also attended a private school in Stanthorpe, Queensland, for one year.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Austlit |title=Patricia Wrightson {{!}} AustLit: Discover Australian Stories |url=https://www.austlit.edu.au/austlit/page/A26709 |access-date=2022-02-28 |website=www.austlit.edu.au |language=en}}</ref> Of her education, Wrightson later wrote, “I was really educated in literature, philosophy and wonder by my father; and in the social sciences by my mother. My most profitable year of schooling was the one in which I abandoned the syllabus altogether and spent the year, without permission or guidance, in discovering Shakespeare”.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Dutton |first=Geoffrey |title=The Australian collection : Australia's greatest books |date=1985 |publisher=Angus & Robertson Publishers |isbn=0-207-14961-5 |location=North Ryde, NSW, Australia |oclc=13138661}}</ref>

During World War II Wrightson worked in a munitions factory in Sydney.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Patricia Wrightson |url=https://www.textpublishing.com.au/authors/patriciawrightson |access-date=2022-02-28 |website=Text Publishing}}</ref>

Wrightson married in 1943, and had two children, Peter and Jenny, before divorcing in 1953.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2010-05-09 |title=Patricia Wrightson obituary |url=http://www.theguardian.com/books/2010/may/09/patricia-wrightson-obituary |access-date=2022-02-28 |website=the Guardian |language=en}}</ref> She worked as secretary and administrator at Bonalbo District Hospital, from 1946 to 1960, and Sydney District Nursing Association, from 1960 to 1964.<ref name="Atkins" />

Wrightson died of "natural causes" on 15 March 2010, a few days after entering a New South Wales hospital.<ref name="mcguirk" />

==Literary career== Wrightson served as Assistant Editor and later editor of the ''[[School Magazine]]'', in Sydney, from 1964 to 1970, a literary publication for children.<ref name=Guardian/><ref name=Atkins/>

She wrote 27 books during her lifetime and entwined Australian Aboriginal mythology into her writing. After beginning with straightforward adventure stories,<ref>{{Cite web |date=2010-05-09 |title=Patricia Wrightson obituary |url=http://www.theguardian.com/books/2010/may/09/patricia-wrightson-obituary |access-date=2022-02-28 |website=the Guardian |language=en}}</ref> Wrightson's writing developed to reveal two key characteristics: her use of Aboriginal folklore, with its rich fantasy and mystery, and her understanding of the importance of [[Natural environment|the land]]. Author, editor and academic Mark MacLeod wrote that "Wrightson thought that it might be possible to reconcile Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australian cultures and create a new kind of pan-Australian narrative, in which the human characters from both cultures were strongly aware of and influenced by the metaphysical world that Indigenous Australians had known for 60 000 years."<ref name=MacLeod>{{cite web|last1=MacLeod|first1=Mark|title=Farwell, Patricia Wrightson|url=http://markmacleod.blogspot.com.au/2010/03/farewell-patricia-wrightson.html|website=Mark MacLeod Blog On|date=24 March 2010 |access-date=25 August 2014}}</ref>

== Controversy == Initially, Wrighton's use of Aboriginal myths was appreciated by Aboriginal leaders because of her evident respect and care for their traditions,<ref>{{Cite web |date=2010-05-09 |title=Patricia Wrightson obituary |url=http://www.theguardian.com/books/2010/may/09/patricia-wrightson-obituary |access-date=2022-02-28 |website=the Guardian |language=en}}</ref> however, as times changed, Wrightson's use of Aboriginal myths and legends in her fiction came to be questioned by some academics, including New Zealander Clare Bradford, who accused Wrightson of “appropriating and controlling strategies.”<ref>{{Cite web |last=Dolphin |first=Mechanical |date=2010-11-01 |title=>Patricia Wrightson, Part 2 – The Representation of Aboriginality |url=https://mechanicaldolphin.com/2010/11/01/patricia-wrightson-part-2-the-representation-of-aboriginality/ |access-date=2022-02-28 |website=matt finch / mechanical dolphin |language=en}}</ref> Wrightson’s editor Max Macleod stressed that Wrightson’s use of Aboriginal mythology was respectful and inclusive: "She was trying to create a kind of pan-Australia – a whole new Australian mythology which was part non-indigenous and part indigenous."<ref>{{Cite web |date=2010-05-09 |title=Patricia Wrightson obituary |url=http://www.theguardian.com/books/2010/may/09/patricia-wrightson-obituary |access-date=2022-02-28 |website=the Guardian |language=en}}</ref>

In 1978 the Aboriginal playwright [[Jack Davis (playwright)|Jack Davis]] praised Wrightson’s work to the [[International Board on Books for Young People]]. Davis "encouraged her to be even bolder in her writing and, far from giving up in fear, to go on."<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Attebery |first=Brian |date=2005-09-22 |title=Patricia Wrightson and Aboriginal myth |url=https://go.gale.com/ps/i.do?p=AONE&sw=w&issn=00145483&v=2.1&it=r&id=GALE%7CA141726999&sid=googleScholar&linkaccess=abs |journal=Extrapolation |language=English |volume=46 |issue=3 |pages=327–338|doi=10.3828/extr.2005.46.3.5 |url-access=subscription }}</ref> [[Brian Attebery]], American writer and author of Strategies of Fantasy, wrote "No amount of care can make [Wrightson] into a tribal elder, nor can her use of Aboriginal folklore ever be fully ‘authentic’. However, she can become… a participant in the reshaping of tradition for a modern world in which authenticity is an inaccessible ideal."<ref>{{Cite web |last=Dolphin |first=Mechanical |date=2010-11-01 |title=>Patricia Wrightson, Part 2 – The Representation of Aboriginality |url=https://mechanicaldolphin.com/2010/11/01/patricia-wrightson-part-2-the-representation-of-aboriginality/ |access-date=2022-02-28 |website=matt finch / mechanical dolphin |language=en}}</ref>

== Awards == * The biennial [[Hans Christian Andersen Award]] conferred by the [[International Board on Books for Young People]] is the highest career recognition available to a writer or illustrator of children's books. Wrightson was a runner-up for the writing award in 1984 and won it in 1986.<ref name=andersen/><ref name=ibby-wrightson/> The illustration winner that year was Robert Ingpen, who had collaborated with Wrightson on ''[[The Nargun and the Stars]]'' (1973), her fantasy novel based on Aboriginal mythology. They remain the only Australians among more than 60 Andersen Medal recipients.<ref name=andersen/> * Wrightson was made an officer of the [[Order of the British Empire]] in 1977<ref>[https://honours.pmc.gov.au/honours/awards/1109524 It's an Honour website]</ref> and she won the Australian [[Dromkeen Medal]] in 1984, also for her cumulative service to children's literature.<ref name=dromkeen/><ref name=about/> * Many of her books made the [[shortlist]] for the annual ''[[List of CBCA Awards#Children's Book of the Year Awards|Australian Children's Book of the Year Award]]'', which she won four times: in 1956 for her debut novel ''The Crooked Snake'', in 1974 for ''[[The Nargun and The Stars]]'', in 1978 for ''The Ice is Coming'' and in 1984 for ''A Little Fear''. * Wrightson won the [[Ditmar Award results|Ditmar Award]] from the annual [[Australian National Science Fiction Convention]] in 1982 for ''Behind the Wind'', as the year's Best Long Australian Science Fiction or Fantasy. * The Children's Literature section of the [[New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards]] began as a single award in 1979, but was redefined in 1999 to create the Patricia Wrightson Prize (for writing for a primary school audience) named in her honour, and the Ethel Turner Prize (for a secondary school audience).<ref name="Latrobe">{{cite web|title=New South Wales Premier's Literary Award: the Patricia Wrightson and Ethel Turner awards|url=http://www.latrobe.edu.au/childlit/Awards/NSW.htm|website=Children's and Young Adult Literature|publisher=[[La Trobe University]]|access-date=25 August 2014}}</ref> * Patricia Wrightson was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Letters by [[Southern Cross University]] in September, 2004.<ref name=Atkins/>

== Selected works == * ''[[The Crooked Snake]]'' (1955). Winner [[CBCA Book of the Year: Older Readers]] 1956. * ''The Bunyip Hole'' (1958). Commended CBCA Book of the Year 1959. * ''The Rocks of Honey'' (1960) {{ISBN|978-0140302691}} audiobook {{ISBN|978-0091197605}} * ''The Feather Star'' (1962). Commended CBCA Book of the Year 1963. * ''Down to Earth'' (1965) * ''A Racecourse for Andy'' (1968) {{ISBN|9780152650803}} * ''I Own the Racecourse!'' (1968). Highly commended CBCA Book of the Year 1969. * ''Beneath the Sun: an Australian collection for children'' (1972) * ''An Older Kind of Magic'' (1972). Highly commended CBA Book of the Year 1973. {{ISBN|978-0091114305}} {{ISBN|978-0140307399}} * ''[[The Nargun and the Stars]]'' (1973). Winner [[CBCA Book of the Year: Older Readers]] 1974. {{ISBN|9780689504037}} {{ISBN|9780140307801}} * ''Emu Stew: an illustrated collection of stories and poems for children'' (1976) * ''The Human Experience of Fantasy'' (1978) * ''Balyet'' (1989). Shortlist [[CBCA Book of the Year: Older Readers]] 1990. {{ISBN|9780140343397}} * ''Night Outside'' (1979) {{ISBN|9780689503634}} * ''A Little Fear'' (1983). Winner [[CBCA Book of the Year: Older Readers]] 1984. {{ISBN|9780140318470}} * ''The Haunted Rivers'' (1983) * ''Moon-Dark'' (1987) {{ISBN|9780689504518}} * ''The Song of Wirrun'' omnibus (1987) {{ISBN|978-0712611503}} {{ISBN|978-0140365887}} ** ''[[The Ice is Coming]]'' (1977). Winner [[CBCA Book of the Year: Older Readers]] 1978. {{ISBN|9780689500817}} {{ISBN|9780345332486}} ** ''The Dark Bright Water'' (1978) {{ISBN|9780689501227}} {{ISBN|9780345332493}} ** ''Behind the Wind'' aka ''Journey Behind the Wind'' (1981) Highly commended CBCA Book of the Year 1982. {{ISBN|9780345332509}} * ''The Old, Old Ngarang'' (1989) * ''The Sugar-Gum Tree'' (1991). Shortlist [[CBCA Book of the Year: Younger Readers]] 1992. {{ISBN|9780670839100}} * ''Shadows of Time'' (1994) * ''Rattler's Place'' (1997). Honour Book [[CBCA Book of the Year: Younger Readers]] 1998 (in ''Aussie Bites'' series) audiobook {{ISBN|9781740308458}} * ''The Water Dragons'' (in ''Aussie Bites'' series)

==References== {{reflist|25em |refs= <ref name=mcguirk>{{cite news |agency=[[Associated Press]] |first=Rod |last=McGuirk |title=Australian author Patricia Wrightson dies at 88 |url=http://www.tributes.com/obituary/read/Patricia-Wrightson-88149408 |date=March 2010 |publisher=Reprint at Tributes.com |access-date=29 July 2013 }}  </ref> <ref name=Guardian> [[Julia Eccleshare|Eccleshare, Julia]] (9 May 2010). [https://www.theguardian.com/books/2010/may/09/patricia-wrightson-obituary "Patricia Wrightson obituary: Australian children's author inspired by Aboriginal folklore"]. ''The Guardian''.</ref> <ref name=Times> Obituary ''[[The Times]]'', 23 April 2010.</ref> <ref name=about> "About the Author". In Patricia Wrightson, ''The Nargun and The Stars'', [[Puffin Books]], 1973. {{ISBN|0-14-030780-X}}.</ref>

<ref name=andersen> [http://www.ibby.org/index.php?id=273 "Hans Christian Andersen Awards"]. [[International Board on Books for Young People]] (IBBY). Retrieved 29 July 2013.</ref> <ref name=ibby-wrightson> [http://www.literature.at/viewer.alo?objid=14769&viewmode=fullscreen&scale=3.33&rotate=&page=69 "Patricia Wrightson"] (pp. 73–74, by Eva Glistrup). [https://archive.today/20130114185952/http://www.literature.at/viewer.alo?objid=14769&viewmode=fullscreen&scale=3.33&rotate=&page=105 "Candidates for the Hans Christian Andersen Awards 1956–2002"] (pp. 110–18).<br> ''The Hans Christian Andersen Awards, 1956–2002''. IBBY. [[Gyldendal]]. 2002. Hosted by [[Austrian Literature Online]] (literature.at). Retrieved 29 July 2013.</ref> <ref name=dromkeen>{{cite web |title=Dromkeen Medal |publisher=Scholastic |url=http://www.scholastic.com.au/common/dromkeen/medal.asp |access-date=15 July 2007 |archive-date=26 March 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120326074318/http://www.scholastic.com.au/common/dromkeen/medal.asp |url-status=dead }}</ref> }}

==External links== {{Portal|Children's literature |Speculative fiction |Australia }} * {{ISFDB name}} * {{Australian Women's Register}} * [http://www.austlit.edu.au/austlit/page/A26709 Patricia Wrightson] at AustLit.edu.au * {{LCAuth|n78093550|Patricia Wrightson|26|ue}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wrightson, Patricia}} [[Category:1921 births]] [[Category:2010 deaths]] [[Category:Australian children's writers]] [[Category:20th-century Australian women writers]] [[Category:20th-century Australian writers]] [[Category:Hans Christian Andersen Award for Writing winners]] [[Category:Writers from New South Wales]] [[Category:Australian women children's writers]] [[Category:Australian women science fiction and fantasy writers]] [[Category:Australian science fiction writers]] [[Category:Australian women novelists]]