Cirrus@Austlit

'Although she has written two impressive volumes of poetry, The Painted Lady in 2006 and The Love Procession in 2012, the Canberra poet Suzanne Edgar has not yet received the critical attention she clearly merits. Here, Beston examines the works of Edgar who began her literary career with a book of short stories, Counting Back and Other Stories published in 1991. Born and educated in Adelaide, Edgar came to Canberra as a young woman with her husband Peter. She taught Women's Studies at the Australian National University and was a contributing editor with the Dictionary of Australian Biography for over twenty years. Edgar's total output of poems is close to two hundred and fifty, often complex in thought, always clear in expression. The lack of critical attention to Edgar's poetry needs to be redressed, for her books belong alongside those of the outstanding women poets of her lifetime in Australia.' (Publication summary)