WRIGHT, JUDITH

born May 31, 1915, Armidale, N.S.W., Australia died June 25, 2000, Canberra, A.C.T. in full Judith Arundell Wright Australian poet whose verse, thoroughly modern in idiom, is noted for skillful technique. After completing her education at the University of Sydney, Wright worked in an advertising agency and as a secretary at the University of Queensland, where she helped publish Meanjin, a literary journal. From 1949 she lectured part-time at various Australian universities, becoming honours tutor in English at the University of Queensland at Brisbane in 1967. In 1945 Wright's poetry began to appear in magazines, and her first volume of poetry, The Moving Image, was published in 1946. A vivid description of farm life, it was followed by Woman to Man (1949), The Gateway (1953), The Two Fires (1955), and City Sunrise (1964). Much of her poetry was marked by restrained and lyric verse that decried materialism and outside influences on native cultures. A volume of short stories, The Nature of Love, was published in 1966, and her Collected Poems 19421970 in 1971. She also wrote several children's books, a biography of the Australian poet Charles Harpur, and a book on the Australian short-story writer Henry Lawson. In 1992 she received the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry. A noted activist, Wright campaigned for such causes as conservation, peace, and Aboriginal land rights.