Marion Halligan

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Marion Halligan

AM
BornMarion Mildred Halligan
(1940-04-16)16 April 1940
Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia
Died19 February 2024(2024-02-19) (aged 83)
Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia
OccupationWriter
LanguageEnglish
NationalityAustralian
Notable worksValley of Grace, The Golden Dress

Marion Mildred Halligan AM (16 April 1940 – 19 February 2024) was an Australian writer. She was born and educated in Newcastle, New South Wales, and worked as a school teacher and journalist before publishing her first short stories. Halligan has served as chairperson of the Literature Board of the Australia Council and the Australian National Word Festival. In her later years, she lived in Canberra.

Biography[edit]

Marion Mildred Halligan was born in Newcastle, New South Wales on 16 April 1940.[1] For a number of years she was a member of a group of women writers based in Canberra known as the "Canberra Seven" or "Seven Writers". The group began with three members in 1980, growing to seven by 1984. In addition to Marion Halligan, they were Dorothy Johnston, Margaret Barbalet, Sara Dowse, Suzanne Edgar, Marian Eldridge and Dorothy Horsfield. The group essentially disbanded after Marian Eldridge's death in 1997. However, before that they met regularly to critique each other's work, and published a book of short stories called Canberra Tales in 1988.[2] Halligan died on 19 February 2024, at the age of 83.[3][4]

Recognition[edit]

Halligan was appointed Member of the Order of Australia (AM) in the 2006 Birthday Honours "for service to literature as an author, to the promotion of Australian writers and to support for literary events and professional organisations."[5]

Her work is referenced in an art work "The Cushion and the Wedge" at Garema Place, Canberra. It is in the form of a voluptuous pillow of polished stainless steel, around which are scattered sheets representing sheets of paper, on which are engraved poems by Halligan.[6]

Awards

Bibliography[edit]

Library resources about
Marion Halligan
By Marion Halligan

Novels[edit]

  • Self Possession (1987)
  • Spider Cup (1990)
  • Lovers' Knots: A Hundred-Year Novel (1992)
  • Wishbone (1994)
  • The Golden Dress (1998)
  • The Fog Garden (2001)
  • The Point (2003)
  • The Apricot Colonel (2006)
  • Murder on the Apricot Coast (2008)
  • Valley of Grace (2009)
  • Goodbye Sweetheart (2015)

Short story collections[edit]

  • The Living Hothouse (1988)
  • The Hanged Man in the Garden (1989)
  • The Worry Box (1993)
  • Collected Stories (1997)
  • Shooting the Fox (2011)

Non-fiction[edit]

  • Eat My Words (1990)
  • Out of the Picture (1996) - collection
  • Cockles of the Heart (1996) - travel
  • Those Women Who Go To Hotels (1997) - autobiography, travel
  • The Taste of Memory (2004)
  • Words for Lucy (2022) - memoir

Contributed works[edit]

  • "Most mortal enemy", "Belladonna gardens", and "Perilous seas" published in Canberra Tales: Stories (1988). "Belladonna gardens" had previously been published in Meanjin, "Perilous seas" in Fiction '88, edited by Frank Moorhouse, ABC Publications.

Edited[edit]

  • The Gift of Story: Three Decades of UQP Short Stories (1998)
  • Storykeepers (2001)

Children's[edit]

  • The Midwife's Daughters (1997)

Critical studies and reviews of Halligan's work[edit]

  • Armstrong, Judith (June 2011). "Minds of others". Australian Book Review (332): 57. Review of Shooting the fox.

References[edit]

  1. ^ AWM
  2. ^ Australian Women Corporate Entry Seven Writers (1980-1998) Retrieved on 5 September 2007
  3. ^ Pryor, Sally (20 February 2024). "Canberra literary icon Marion Halligan dies". The Canberra Times. Retrieved 20 February 2024.
  4. ^ Dooley, Gillian (21 February 2024). "Marion Halligan was a woman of great warmth and generosity, and a consummate novelist". The Conversation. Retrieved 24 February 2024.
  5. ^ "HALLIGAN, Marion Mildred - Member of the Order of Australia". Australian Government. Retrieved 6 September 2007.
  6. ^ "The Cushion and the Wedge". Access Canberra. Retrieved 1 October 2023.
  7. ^ "Pascall Prize for Critical Writing". Geraldine Pascall Foundation. Archived from the original on 21 July 2008. Retrieved 27 June 2008.
  8. ^ "ACT Book of the Year Winners". ACT Virtual Library. Archived from the original on 31 August 2007. Retrieved 3 September 2007.
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