Alexis Wright
Alexis Wright (is one of Australia’s best-known Indigenous authors and is a member of the Waanyi nation of the southern highlands of the Gulf of Carpentaria. A writer, researcher, and social commentator, she has been widely published in magazines and journals. She has worked for many years on campaigns for Aboriginal land rights, Indigenous self-government and constitutional change in the Northern Territory, and for the prevention of Indigenous injury.
Her books include Grog War (Magabala Books, 1997), a study of the problems associated with the excessive availability of alcohol in the outback town of Tennant Creek, and she was the editor and compiler of Take Power (Jukurrpa Books, 1998), an anthology of essays and stories exploring Aboriginal land rights in Central Australia. Her novel Plains of Promise (University of Queensland Press, 1997) was short-listed for the Commonwealth Prize, the Age Book of the Year Award and the NSW Premier's Award for Fiction.
Her novel Carpentaria (Giramondo, 2006) has won the 2007 Miles Franklin Literary Award, the Australian Literature Society Gold Medal, the Victorian Premier's Award for Fiction, the Queensland Premier's Award for Fiction, and the ABIA Literary Fiction Book of the Year.
She holds the position of Distinguished Fellow at the University of Western Sydney, Writing and Society Research Group, College of the Arts where she is working on a new novel and completing a doctorate on Indigenous Storytelling. She is a member of the Writers Advisory Panel for Sydney PEN.