Learning to Dance: Elizabeth Jolley - Her Life and Work

by Elizabeth Jolley

Elizabeth Jolley is one of Australia's most significant and best-loved writers, delighting readers with her acute observation of the world, her wicked humour, her compassion and her honesty. Learning to Dance brings together some of her most poignant short stories, essays and poems, and includes two formerly unpublished pieces. The recurring themes of her life and work are evident here: the complex relationships within families; homesickness and exile; intense love between women; the healing power of the land; the inevitability of loneliness; and the fragile nature of happiness.

Together, these writings form something close to an autobiography. Above all, they are a celebration of Elizabeth's rich life and work.

Hardcover

First published June 30, 2008

About the author

Monica Elizabeth Jolley was an award-winning writer who settled in Western Australia in the late 1950s. She was 53 years old when her first book was published, and she went on to publish fifteen novels (including an autobiographical trilogy), four short story collections, and three non-fiction books, publishing well into her 70s and achieving significant critical acclaim. She was also a pioneer of creative writing teaching in Australia, counting many well known writers such as Tim Winton among her students. Her novels explore alienated characters and the nature of loneliness and entrapment.

Honours:
1987: Western Australian Citizen of the Year
1988: Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) for services to literature
1989: Canada/Australia Literary Award
1997: Australian Living Treasure