Dorothy Hewett Biography

Australian playwright and poet, born and brought up on an isolated farm in Western Australia, educated at the University of Western Australia. Her experience working in factories in Sydney provided material for her only novel Bobbin Up (1959). She had published some early poems in Meanjin and subsequently produced several collections including Windmill Country (1968), Rapunzel in Suburbia (1975), Greenhouse (1979), Journeys (1982), and Alice in Wormland (1987). Frequently confessional and romantic in tone, she also makes use of humour and a variety of verse forms to create poems which directly engage with themes of ideology, sexuality, ageing, and personal experience. Her first play, This Old Man Comes Rolling Home (perf. 1967; pub. 1976), is about working-class life in a poor suburb of Sydney. Other plays include The Chapel Perilous (perf. 1971; pub. 1972), Bon-Bons and Roses for Dolly (perf. 1972; pub. 1976), The Golden Oldies (1976), The Tatty Hollow Story (perf. 1974; pub. 1976), The Man from Mukinupin (1979), The Fields of Heaven (1983), and Golden Valley (1985). Wild Card: An Autobiography 1923–1958 (1990) displays much of the vigour of her drama and verse.