Alexis Wright is a member of the Waanyi nation of the southern highlands of the Gulf of Carpentaria. The author of the prize-winning novels Carpentaria and The Swan Book, Wright has also published three works of non-fiction: Take Power, an oral history of the Central Land Council; Grog War, a study of alcohol abuse in the Northern Territory; and Tracker, an award-winning collective memoir of Aboriginal leader, Tracker Tilmouth. Her books have been published widely overseas, including in China, the US, the UK, Italy, France, and Poland. She holds the position of Boisbouvier Chair in Australian Literature at the University of Melbourne. Wright is the only author to win both the Miles Franklin Award (in 2007 for Carpentaria) and the Stella Prize (in 2018 for Tracker).
Wright is also an active land rights and Aboriginal rights activist. Wright's father was a white cattleman who died when she was five years old. The author grew up in Cloncurry, Queensland, with her mother and grandmother.
Carpentaria is a 2006 novel by Alexis Wright about the tortured relations between white settlers and the Aboriginal Black community in the remote mudflats of the Gulf of Carpentaria, in northern Queensland, Australia. The novel centers around...
The Swan Book is a post-apocalyptical novel based on the suffering of Indigenous Australians throughout history. The author, Alexis Wright – an indigenous Australian herself – based the story on her own experiences and mistreatments.
The story...
