Ann-Marie Priest: My Tongue Is My Own. A Life of Gwen Harwood

In this episode of Biographers in Conversation, Ann-Marie Priest chats with Gabriella about the choices she made while writing her award-winning biography My Tongue Is My Own. A Life of Gwen Harwood, the first biography of Gwen Harwood, one of Australia’s most distinctive poets. My Tongue Is My Own follows Gwen from her childhood in 1920s Brisbane, to her final years in Hobart in the 1990s. 

Here’s what you’ll discover in this episode:

• Why Ann-Marie Priest felt inspired to write Gwen Harwood’s biography.
• The meaning of the book’s title: My Tongue is my Own.
• How Ann-Marie chose to present Harwood’s many conflicting personas and contradictions.
• How Ann-Marie represented the historical, social and cultural context in which Harwood struggled to forge a career as a poet.
• How Ann-Marie portrayed Harwood’s behaviour as a chameleon and a rebel, one who adopted several pseudonyms and staged several literary hoaxes to highlight entrenched discrimination against female poets. 
• The ethical decisions Ann-Marie made when deciding whether to reveal secrets and sensitive information contained in previously unpublished letters.  
• How Ann-Marie balanced Harwood’s professional, personal and interior lives.
• The extent to which Ann-Marie believes she captured the truth of her subject.
• The literary devices Ann-Marie employed to craft compelling narrative.
• How Ann-Marie reconciled Harwood’s refusal to be bound by conventions, yet at the same time, lived a conventional life as a wife and mother to four children. 
• How Ann-Marie balanced Harwood’s human story with literary criticism.

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