Amy Witting (1918 - 2001)

Brief Biography

Amy Witting was born Joan Fraser in the Sydney suburb of Annandale in 1918. She studied at the University of Sydney and later taught French and English at state secondary schools. In 1948 she was transferred to Kempsey where she met Les Levick, a fellow teacher. They were married in December 1948. In 1953 Witting was diagnosed with TB after a routine school check, and it was while she was confined to the Bodington Sanitorium that she began to write more seriously. Witting has had numerous poems and short stories published in journals such as Quadrant and The New Yorker.

Witting was shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Award in 1990 for I for Isobel and again in 2000 for Isobel on the Way to the Corner Shop. In 1993 she was awarded the Patrick White Prize.

Amy Witting died a few weeks after her last novel was published in September 2001.

Bibliography

Novels
The Visit 1977
I for Isobel 1989
A Change in the Lighting 1994
Maria's War 1998
Isobel on the Way to the Corner Shop 1999
After Cynthia 2001

Short-Story Collections
Marriages 1990
Faces and Voices 2000

Poetry
Travel Diary 1985
Beauty is the Straw 1991
Collected Poems 1998

This page and its contents are copyright © 2003 by Perry Middlemiss, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.

Last modified: January 20, 2003.