Clare Wright is a historian and author who has worked in politics, academia and the media. Born in Michigan, she arrived in Australia in 1974, with her mother.
She holds a BA Hons in history (University of Melbourne, awarded 1991) MA in Public History (Monash University, awarded 1993) and a PhD in Australian Studies (University of Melbourne, awarded 2002).
Her doctoral thesis, which won the inaugural Geoffrey Serle Award for the best postgraduate contribution to Australian history, became her first book: Beyond the Ladies Lounge: Australia's Female Publicans.
In 2013, Wright published The Forgotten Rebels of Eureka which delves into the lives of the women on the gold-fields at the time of the Eureka Stockade. It was later published for young-adult readers as We Are the Rebels: The Women and Men Who Made Eureka (2015). She is also the author of You Daughters of Freedom: The Australians Who Won the Vote and Inspired the World (2018), among a range of scholarly articles.
In 202, she was given the Medal of the Order of Australia for service to literature and to historical research.