 Cover design by Soosie Adshead Permission to use images and text should be directed to Spinifex Press 1998 ACT Creative Arts Fellowship for LiteratureWee Girls was warmly praised by Phillip Adams as a "remarkable collection" of fiction, poetry and autobiography. Re-printed due to popular demand! |
Wee GirlsWomen Writing from an Irish PerspectiveLizz Murphy (ed)
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What influence does being Irish or of Irish descent have on women writers?
These writers show that whether Irish or of Irish descent, whether living in Ireland or a part of its diaspora, they balance ancient history, myth and legend with the fragility and tenuousness of contemporary society, peace and exile. It means the willingness to laugh at every opportunity alongside a constant lamentation, a keening in the bones. And always trying to make sense of "the something of the Irish in me" (Jill Jones) and proud of it, while quietly observing "... how some people survive there [Belfast] by not caring. Using a kind of stupidity as a security blanket." (Linda Anderson).
Whatever the form there are the stories, the music, the whispering dreams and the voices that ache to be heard. There is a wildness and a daring in these voices. They call up legions out of the sea and set fires alight. They hang out over garden fences, move restlessly, are dotey, beaming, weeping, powerful. Always there is the longing, the love of language, and the "... determined search for the right language" (Medbh McGuickan).
Wee Girls is a selection of writings by women from Ireland, Australia, England, Canada (and other countries) compiled and edited by Irish-Australian poet, Lizz Murphy.
Lizz Murphy was born in Belfast, Ireland and emigrated to Australia (for the second time) in 1969. She is the editor of two anthologies, She's a Train and She's Dangerous and Women and the Sea and author of two collections of poetry. In 1994 she won the Anutech Poetry Prize, a prestigious national award. She has worked in the publishing industry for many years.
