Fay Zwicky
| Fay Zwicky | |
|---|---|
| Born | Julia Fay Rosefield 4 July 1933 Melbourne, Victoria, Australia |
| Language | English |
| Nationality | Australian |
| Alma mater | University of Melbourne |
| Notable awards |
Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry (1982) Patrick White Award (2005) |
Fay Zwicky (born 4 July 1933 in Melbourne) is a contemporary Australian poet, short-story writer, critic and academic primarily known for her autobiographical poem Kaddish which deals with her identity as a Jewish writer.
Born Julia Fay Rosefield, Fay Zwicky grew up in suburban Melbourne. Her family was fourth generation Australian—her father, a doctor; her mother, a musician. Fay Zwicky was an accomplished pianist by the age of six, and performed with her violinist and cellist sisters while still at school. After completing her schooling at Anglican institutions, she entered the University of Melbourne in 1950, receiving her Bachelor of Arts in 1954. Descended from European Jews, she described herself as an "outsider" ("I was ashamed of my foreign interloper status") from an "Anglo-Saxon dominated" Australian culture. She began publishing poetry as an undergraduate, thereafter working as a musician, extensively touring Europe, America and South-East Asia between 1955 and 1965.
She settled in Perth with her Swiss husband Karl Zwicky (the two married in 1957) and two children (one son, one daughter) and returned to literature working primarily as a Senior Lecturer in American and comparative literature at the University of Western Australia until her retirement in 1987. From 1978 till 1981 she also a was member of the literature board of the Australia Council in Sydney. Since her retirement she concentrated on her writing which won her international recognition.
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