Publication Date: 01 March 2026
RRP: $39.99
ISBN: 9781923451032
Size: 153mm x 234mm
Pages: c.336pp
Category: Music, Coming Soon, Australasian & Pacific, History, Art, Biography, Autobiography, Memoir

Fiery Tales

The Correspondence of Gwen Harwood and Larry Sitsky

Edited by Ann-Marie Priest

This item will be released March 1, 2026

Also available as an ebook from your favourite retailer.


From letters to librettos, this collection offers an intimate glimpse at a significant Australian creative partnership

This lively correspondence between celebrated poet Gwen Harwood and renowned composer Larry Sitsky, covering their creation of a series of acclaimed and at times controversial operas, gives an insight into a unique collaboration between two highly gifted Australian artists in the second half of the twentieth century. It brings to life the formation of six groundbreaking operatic works while giving a fascinating glimpse into the very different lives of two important Australian cultural figures.

Introduced by acclaimed biographer and scholar Ann-Marie Priest, these letters, collected together for the first time, reveal a dynamic creative partnership. Each chapter charts the development of a different work and offers historical and biographical context. The portrait that emerges is compelling, propulsive and illuminating, as the tensions and emerging affinities between the two artists set the stage for the creation of great works.


Ann-Marie Priest

Ann-Marie Priest is the author of My Tongue Is My Own: A Life of Gwen Harwood, which won the 2023 National Biography Award and the 2024 Magarey Medal for Biography. She is a recipient of the Hazel...

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