Morag Fraser Morag Fraser i(A10606 works by) (a.k.a. Morag Elizabeth Fraser)
Born: Established: 1944 Adelaide, South Australia, ;
Gender: Female
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Works By

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1 Bingil Bay Bastard Morag Fraser , 2024 single work review
— Appears in: Inside Story , May 2024;

— Review of John Büsst : Bohemian Artist and Saviour of Reef and Rainforest Iain McCalman , 2024 single work biography

'Iain McCalman begins John Büsst: Bohemian Artist and Saviour of Reef and Rainforest, his account of another man’s heroic environmental activism, by inserting himself artfully into his introductory narrative. Here, he is the historian who missed something when he was writing The Reef, his acclaimed “passionate history” of the Great Barrier Reef, a decade ago.'  (Introduction)

1 y separately published work icon The Poetry of Peter Porter : Making with Words Morag Fraser (presenter), 2023 25905966 2023 single work podcast

'This week’s ABR Podcast is a special feature on the work and life of one of Australia’s finest poets, Peter Porter (1929-2010). Morag Fraser, currently at work on a biography of Porter, introduces the podcast, setting out the major currents of his life. From there, fifteen poets and critics read from the Porter oeuvre, in all its ‘variety and depth’, explains Fraser, and offer their own memories of the man. Listen to Gig Ryan, Sarah Holland-Batt, Martin Flanagan, John Kinsella, Judith Beveridge and more read from Porter’s making with words.'  (Introduction)

1 ‘Waves of Anger and Fear’ : Judith Brett on Australia’s Political and Cultural Life Morag Fraser , 2021 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , December no. 438 2021; (p. 44-45)

— Review of Doing Politics : Writing on Public Life Judith Brett , 2021 selected work essay
'Judith Brett, historian and La Trobe University emeritus professor of politics, is characteristically direct – in her questioning, her analysis, and her engagement with readers. If there is something declarative about ‘Going Public’, the title of Doing Politics’s introductory chapter, that is exactly what Brett intends: to go public, to offer a general reader her considered reflections on Australian political and cultural life. This is not an assemblage of opinion pieces, though her writings have a related journalistic conciseness and impact – they speak to the times. What distinguishes Brett’s collection of essays is their scholarly depth and habit of enquiry. They prompt thought before they invite agreement, or conclusions. Even the bad actors, the political obstructors, the wreckers in Brett’s political analysis, are psychologically intriguing. Why are our politicians like this? What’s going on? Judith Brett studied literature and philosophy as well as politics as an undergraduate. Perhaps Hamlet drills away in her consciousness: ‘There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, / Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.’' (Introduction)
1 Seeing the Pattern : Amanda Lohrey's Bracing New Novel Morag Fraser , 2020 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , September no. 424 2020; (p. 32)

— Review of In the Time of Foxes Jo Lennan , 2020 selected work short story

'In a 1954 letter to his niece Pippa, artist-nomad Ian Fairweather lamented that he could not write with sufficient analytic detachment to look back at his life and ‘see a pattern in it’. (Ian Fairweather: A life in letters, Text Publishing, 2019). The irony – that one of Australian art’s most profound, intuitive pattern-makers should be ruefully unable to ‘see’ the formative structures and repetitions of his fraught life – would not be lost on Amanda Lohrey. Labyrinth, her haunting new novel, is a meditation on fundamental patterns in nature and in familial relations, and our experience of them in time. But this is a novel, not a treatise, its narrative so bracing – like salt spray stinging your face – that one is borne forward inexorably, as if caught in the coastal rip that is one of the novel’s darker motifs. It is a work to read slowly, and reread, so that its metaphorical patterns can come into focus, and the intricate knots of structure loosen and unwind.'  (Introduction)

1 Artist, Nomad, Epistler : Ian Fairweather as an Avid Sponge Morag Fraser , 2019 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , November no. 416 2019; (p. 13-14)

— Review of Ian Fairweather : A Life in Letters Ian Fairweather , 2019 selected work correspondence

'Artist, hermit, instinctive communicator, a nomad who built studio nests for himself all over the globe, Ian Fairweather is a consistent paradox – and an enduring one. In an art world of fragile and fluctuating reputations, his work retains the esteem with which it was received – by his peers – when he landed in Australia in 1934 and, with their help, exhibited almost immediately. His way of life – eccentric, solitary, obsessive – was extraordinary then, and continued so until his death in 1974. Success never sanded off his diffident, abrasive edges.'(Introduction)

1 'The Ceremony of Innocence' : A Formidable Memoir from a Poet and Lawyer Morag Fraser , 2019 single work essay
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , January / February no. 408 2019; (p. 26-27)

'The poet James McAuley once told a group of Sydney university students – ‘forcefully’,  as Geoffrey Lehmann recalls – that poets should have a career unconnected with literature. Lehmann had already imbibed a related injunction from his mother:  ‘One day she told me I should become a lawyer and a writer. From the age of twelve I no longer had to think about what I would become.’' (Introduction)

1 y separately published work icon The Book of Mick : the Life of a Potter A Collaboration Owen Rye , Neil Hoffman , Neil Mansfield , Irena Blonder , Bernadette Mansfield , Paul Davis , Kevin Grealy , Morag Fraser , Tony Martin , Rowley Drysdale , Noosa Heads : Duck Books , 2017 11480152 2017 single work prose

A collaborative. Who is Mick? Who is he really? A potter? A prick? A wanderer? An artist? A good mate? The answers to these questions are explored in this collaborative novel by eighteen writers from around the globe, taking the reader on one hell of a ride. 
Published in conjunction with the ‘Smoke on the Water’ - the 2017 Australian Woodfire Ceramics Conference at Cooroy, Queensland.

1 The Irreplaceable : A Tribute to John Clarke (1948–2017) Morag Fraser , 2017 single work obituary (for John Clarke )
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , May no. 391 2017;
'Years ago, when I was editing a magazine, John Clarke would occasionally ring, sometimes to discuss what might have been called business, but, more often, just out of the blue. John would talk and I would listen. And so would the entire office staff – listen. They’d get the cue from our wily receptionist, pick up their extensions and stop work for the duration of the call. If they’d had an enterprise agreement, I would have made sure it included that time out, and immunity from prosecution under privacy laws. Innocent days. Days of joy. Even Gough Whitlam, who would also call occasionally, couldn’t command quite the same degree of blissful communal eavesdropping.' (Introduction)
1 Double Life Morag Fraser , 2017 single work criticism
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , March no. 389 2017; (p. 29)
‘Mark Colvin’s fine memoir – of a journalist’s life and as a spy’s son – was completed before the Macquarie Dictionary chose ‘fake news’ as its word of the year, and the OED and Merriam-Webster opted for ‘post truth’ and ‘surreal’. In July 2016, as Colvin was writing his acknowledgments chapter, Donald Trump was being nominated as the Republican candidate for the presidency of the United States. Colvin does not mention Trump’s name. But his entire book – a principled insider’s history of the craft of journalism, of Cold War politics, espionage, and the pivotal political events of the twentieth and early twenty-first century – is a counter-instance to ‘fake news’ and the hyperventilating culture which spawns it. It is also a bracing reminder that the fourth estate – in its now myriad manifestations – remains the necessary counterweight to the abuse of power and to oligarchic or autocratic rule.’ (Introduction)
1 Arts Highlights of the Year Robyn Archer , Ben Brooker , Tim Byrne , Lee Christofis , Alison Croggon , Brett Dean , Ian Dickson , Julie Ewington , Morag Fraser , Andrew Fuhrmann , Colin Golvan , Fiona Gruber , Patrick McCaughey , Brian McFarlane , Primrose Potter , John Rickard , Peter Rose , Dina Ross , Michael Shmith , Doug Wallen , Terri-Ann White , Kim Williams , Jake Wilson , 2015 single work column
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , November no. 376 2015; (p. 36-42)
'To highlight Australian Book Review's arts coverage and to celebrate some of the year's memorable concerts, operas, films, ballets, plays, and exhibitions, we invited a group of critics and arts professionals to nominate their favourites – and to nominate one production they are looking forward to in 2016. (We indicate which works were reviewed in Arts Update.)' (36)
1 Hill Country Morag Fraser , 2015 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , October no. 375 2015; (p. 41)

— Review of The Secret Chord Geraldine Brooks , 2015 single work novel
1 Remembering Veronica Brady Morag Fraser , 2015 single work obituary (for Veronica Brady )
— Appears in: Eureka Street , 31 August vol. 25 no. 17 2015;
1 Book Reviewing and Its Provocateurs Patrick Allington , Miriam Cosic , James Bradley , Peter Craven , Gillian Dooley , Kerryn Goldsworthy , Morag Fraser , Lisa Gorton , Melinda Harvey , James Ley , Felicity Plunkett , Peter Rose , Luke Slattery , Geordie Williamson , 2015 single work criticism
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , May no. 371 2015; (p. 16-19)
'Last month in Melbourne, a group of book reviewers and literary editors took part in a conference organised by Monash University’s Centre for the Book. There were more than thirty short papers, or ‘provocations’, as they were styled. Our Editor lamented the low or non-payment of some reviewers (especially younger ones) and announced a major new campaign to further increase payments to ABR contributors. Much good came from Critical Matters: Book Reviewing Now. Book reviewers are a non-organised, often isolated class: Critical Matters pointed the way to a more united cohort. Hearteningly, the mood was invigorating – not rueful or defensive. To complement this symposium, we invited a number of the participants, and others, to respond to this question: ‘What single development would most improve the Australian critical culture?’'
1 Headlong into Recent History Carey's Timely Work Hard to Forget Morag Fraser , 2014 single work review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 11-12 October 2014; (p. 32-33) The Canberra Times , 11 October 2014; (p. 23)

— Review of Amnesia Peter Carey , 2014 single work novel
1 Alex Miller's Journey to the Stone Country [Essay] : Journey to the Stone Country Morag Fraser , 2013 single work essay
— Appears in: Reading Australia 2013-; Australian Book Review , May no. 381 2016; (p. 34-37)
1 Barometer of Torment Morag Fraser , 2013 single work review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 12 October 2013; (p. 30-31)

— Review of The Narrow Road to the Deep North Richard Flanagan , 2013 single work novel
1 Passion for Learning Forever Inspiring Morag Fraser , 2012 single work obituary (for J. J. C. Smart )
— Appears in: The Age , 16 October 2012; (p. 13)
1 The Beauty That Was Peter Steele's Mind Morag Fraser , 2012 single work obituary (for Peter Steele )
— Appears in: Eureka Street , 17 June vol. 22 no. 12 2012; Eureka Street : Best of 2012 , 6 January 2013;
1 Rich Reminder of Value of an Arts Education Morag Fraser , 2012 single work column
— Appears in: The Age , 19 June 2012; (p. 13)
1 Brickbats in Mudbrick Morag Fraser , 2012 single work review
— Appears in: The Saturday Age , 18 February 2012; (p. 26-27) The Sydney Morning Herald , 25-26 February 2012; (p. 37)

— Review of The Memoirs of a Young Bastard : The Diaries of Tim Burstall, November 1953 to December 1954 Tim Burstall , 2012 single work diary
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