Papers of Philip Hodgins
MSS 013
Collection Title
Papers of Philip HodginsCollection Identifier
MSS 013Inclusive date(s)
1978 to 2000Extent and Medium
Creator(s)
Category
Subject: Terms(s)
Subject: Person(s)
Collection Description
The papers document Hodgins' writings from 1978, including correspondence, poetry, reviews and reader's reports, photographs and an audio cassette, together with several unpublished works.
Administrative / Biographical history
Wikipedia article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_Hodgins
Ian Philip Hodgins was born on 28 January 1959 on a dairy farm at Katandra West near Shepparton, Victoria. He was educated at Geelong and later moved to Melbourne where he worked for ten years as a sales representative for a Melbourne publishing company, before becoming a full-time student at Melbourne University. His poetry encompasses his formative years in country Victoria, school life, hospital experiences, overseas travel, family life, and the experience of having an incurable illness. In 1990, he married the writer Janet Shaw with whom he had two daughters.
Hodgins' first book of poetry Blood and bone (1986), received critical acclaim and he won a number of other prizes, including the Prairie Schooner Readers' Choice USA Award. He was a prolific contributor to many Australian newspapers, anthologies and literary journals.
Tightly controlled at the formal level, Hodgins' poetry has been praised by critics for its original, often lyrical imagery, and unsentimental treatment of the Australian pastoral genre. His mentors included Les Murray, Gwen Harwood and Peter Porter. Much of his poetry encompassed his formative years in country Victoria, school life, hospital experiences, international travel, family life and the experience of incurable illness.
In November 1983, aged 24, Hodgins began treatment for leukaemia. He died in Maryborough, Victoria, on 18 August 1995.
The inaugural Philip Hodgins Memorial Medal for Literary Excellence was awarded to Bruce Dawe in 1997.
Hodgins received the following awards:
Grace Perry Memorial Award, 1988: winner
Wesley Michel Wright Prize for Poetry, 1986: winner
NBC Banjo Awards, NBC Turnbull Fox Phillips Poetry Prize, 1996: winner for Things happen
The Age Book of the Year Award, 1994: shortlisted for Dispossessed : a tale of modern rural Australia
ABC/ABA Bicentennial Literary Award, 1988: Winner for Poetry Australia. Note: Grace Perry Poetry Prize for the collection of poems by Philip Hodgins
New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards, Poetry, 1987: winner for Blood and bone
Hodgins' publications include Blood and bone (1986)
Down the lake with half a chook (1988)
Animal warmth (1990)
A kick of the footy (1990)
II Linguaggio della memoria : (poesie scelte), edited by Anna Secco and translated into Italian by Giovanni Distefano and Anna Secco, (1990)
End of the season (1993)
Up on all fours (1993)
Dispossessed (1994)
Things happen (1996)
Selected poems (1997) and New selected poems (2000) were published posthumously.
References: AustLit : the Resource for Australian Literature, 18 January 2008.
Acquisition Details
Scope and Content
The Philip Hodgins papers represent a near-complete record of Hodgins' literary production over a short but intense period of creative activity. The collection includes multiple drafts of all of Hodgins' published poetry, together with drafts of unpublished works. Hodgins' intense poetic and personal relationships with a number of significant Australian poets, and their encouragement of his writing despite great personal difficulties is well documented in correspondence dating from 1978 until Hodgins' death in 1995.
Access Restrictions
Other
Access: Check with Curator
This collection contains a variety of copyright material. Copyright is held by the creator of each item. Specific conditions for this collection are listed below. If no conditions are stipulated then the standard terms of the Copyright Act apply for published and unpublished items. Digitised material from manuscript collections is provided to clients by UNSW Canberra in good faith for private study and research only, and may not be published or re-purposed without the express and written permission of the individual legal holder of that copyright. Refer also to the UNSW copyright, disclaimer and takedown policy
Copying: Check with Curator
Existence and Location of Orginals
Disclaimer
This collection contains a variety of copyright material. Copyright is held by the creator of each item. Specific conditions for this collection are listed above. If no conditions are stipulated then the standard terms of the Copyright Act apply for published and unpublished items. Digitised material from manuscript collections is provided to clients by UNSW Canberra in good faith for private study and research only, and may not be published or re-purposed without the express and written permission of the individual legal holder of that copyright. Refer also to the UNSW copyright, disclaimer and takedown policy.