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by | Mar 29, 2018 | Vernonia

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Alison Croggon (born 1962) is a contemporary Australian poet, playwright, fantasy novelist, and librettist.[1]

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.[2] 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.[3] Her novella Navigatio was highly commended in the 1995 The Australian/Vogel Literary Award.[4] Four novels of the fantasy genre series Pellinor have been published. She also founded and edits the online writing magazine Masthead[5] and writes theatre criticism.[6]

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.[7][8] 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.[9]

Other poems by Croggon have been set to music by Smetanin, Christine McCombe, Margaret Legge-Wilkinson, and Andrée Greenwell.[10] 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.[11]

She currently lives in Melbourne, Australia with her husband Daniel Keene and three children.[12]

Awards and nominations

  • 2009 Pascall Prize for Critical Writing for her blog Theatre Notes.[1]
  • 2023 shortlisted for NSW Premier's Translation Prize for Duino Elegies.[13]

Works

Poetry

  • This is the Stone. Penguin Books Australia. 1991. ISBN 0-14-058666-0.
  • The Blue Gate. Black Pepper Press. 1997. ISBN 1-876044-18-7.
  • Mnemosyne. Wild Honey Press. 2001. ISBN 1-903090-31-8.
  • Attempts at Being. Salt Publishing. 2002. ISBN 1-876857-42-0. excerpt
  • The Common Flesh: Poems 1980–2002. Arc. 2003. ISBN 1-900072-72-6.
  • November Burning. Vagabond. 2004.
  • Ash. Cusp Books.
  • New and Selected Poems 1991–2017. Newport Street Books. 2017.
  • Theatre. Salt Publishing.

Memoir

  • Monsters: A reckoning. Scribe. 2021. ISBN 9781925713398

Novella

  • Navigatio. Black Pepper. 1996. ISBN 1-876044-09-8.

Fantasy novels

The Books of Pellinor

  • The Gift. Penguin. 2003. ISBN 0-14-029343-4. (published in the US as The Naming (Candlewick Press, ISBN 0-7636-2639-2)
  • The Riddle. Penguin. 2004. ISBN 1-84428-952-4.
  • The Crow. Penguin. 2006. ISBN 1-4063-0137-X.
  • The Singing. Penguin. 2008. ISBN 978-0-670-07238-5.
  • The Bone Queen. Candlewick. 2016. ISBN 978-0763689742. (Cadvan's Story: Prequel to the Books of Pellinor)

Standalone

  • Black Spring. Walter Books. 2012. ISBN 978-1921977480.
  • The Threads of Magic. Walter Books. 2020. 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

  1. ^ a b "Alison Croggon". AustLit: Discover Australian Stories. Retrieved 19 May 2022.
  2. ^ "Croggon, Alison (1962–)". Australian Poetry Library. Archived from the original on 22 December 2011. Retrieved 25 April 2021.
  3. ^ "Alison Croggon". Chicago Review. 14 January 2020. Retrieved 19 May 2022.
  4. ^ "Navigatio | AustLit: Discover Australian Stories". www.austlit.edu.au. Retrieved 19 May 2022.
  5. ^ "Masthead". AustLit: Discover Australian Stories. Retrieved 23 May 2022.
  6. ^ "Alison Croggon". AusStage. Retrieved 23 May 2022.
  7. ^ "Artist Profile: Alison Croggon". OzArts Online. Archived from the original on 28 September 2007. Retrieved 17 January 2007.
  8. ^ "Alison Croggon – 25 years interview". Chamber Made Opera. Retrieved 19 May 2022.
  9. ^ "The Riders". Victorian Opera. 29 October 2013. Retrieved 19 May 2022.
  10. ^ "Alison Croggon". Australian Music Centre. Retrieved 23 May 2022.
  11. ^ "Alison Croggon". The Saturday Paper. 1 May 2019. Retrieved 3 May 2023.
  12. ^ "Croggon, Alison 1962–". Encyclopedia.com. Retrieved 23 May 2022.
  13. ^ "Duino Elegies". State Library of NSW. 8 February 2023. Retrieved 1 March 2023.

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