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43-553: The Kibble Literary Awards comprise two awards—the Nita B Kibble Literary Award , which recognises the work of an established Australian female writer, and the Dobbie Literary Award , which is for a first published work by a female writer. The Awards recognise the works of women writers of fiction or non-fiction classified as 'life writing'. This includes novels, autobiographies, biographies, literature and any writing with

86-560: A "women's tradition" remains vexing; some scholars and editors refer to a "women's canon" and women's "literary lineage", and seek to "identify the recurring themes and to trace the evolutionary and interconnecting patterns" in women's writing, but the range of women's writing across time and place is so considerable that, according to some, it is inaccurate to speak of "women's writing" in a universal sense: Claire Buck calls "women's writing" an "unstable category." Further, women writers cannot be considered apart from their male contemporaries and

129-415: A laughingstock throughout Britain. Hays and Godwin fell out, and she turned her attention to other writers, including Robert Southey and unfortunately Charles Lloyd. There is no known portrait of her in later life, but Samuel Taylor Coleridge referred to her as "a thing ugly and petticoated" (although his real complaint was her arguing theology with him). Her next novel The Victim of Prejudice (1799)

172-534: A pamphlet called Cursory Remarks on An Enquiry into the Expediency and Propriety of Public or Social Worship , using the nom-de-plume Eusebia. The Cambridge mathematician William Frend wrote to her enthusiastically about it. This blossomed into a brief romance. In 1792 Hays was given a copy of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman by Mary Wollstonecraft , and it made a deep impression on her. Hays contacted

215-488: A popular subject among women writers, especially following the second wave of the feminism movement in which women originally seen as “homemakers” began to enter the workforce and abandon their domestic traditions. In the West, the second wave of feminism prompted a general revelation of women's historical contributions, and various academic sub-disciplines, such as women's history and women's writing, developed in response to

258-415: A review of the funding trust and the award processes." Women%27s writing (literary category) Women's writing, as a discrete area of literary studies and practice, is recognized explicitly by the number of dedicated journals, organizations , awards , and conferences that focus mainly or exclusively on texts produced by women. Women's writing as a recognized area of study has been developing since

301-491: A short story, "Hermit: an Oriental Tale," published in 1786 and reprinted twice. It was a picturesque tale that warned against feeling too much passion. From 1782 to 1790, Hays met and exchanged letters with Robert Robinson , a minister who campaigned against the slave trade . She attended the dissenting academy in Hackney in the late 1780s. In 1791 she replied to Gilbert Wakefield 's critique of communal worship with

344-469: A strong personal element. The Nita Kibble Literary Awards were established in 1994 by Nita Dobbie, through her will, in honour of her aunt, Nita Kibble (1879–1962), who had raised her from birth after her mother died. Kibble, who was the first woman to be a librarian with the State Library of New South Wales , served the role of Principal Research Librarian from 1919 until retirement in 1943, and

387-450: Is more emphatically feminist in its focus on women's secondary status and criticism of class hierarchies. Hays was considered too radical and her book did not sell well. In 1803 Hays demonstrated her continuing concern with women's lives and work, publishing Female Biography , a book in six volumes, containing the lives of 294 women from ancient figures to near contemporaries. Some scholars have argued that by this stage Hays realised that it

430-452: Is probably her best-known. Hays's experiment with 'the idea of being free', and her romantic heartbreak over the Frend affair, were its subjects. The novel draws on love letters to William Frend (who was ultimately unreceptive) and includes material taken also from her more philosophical letters in which she debated with William Godwin. The heroine, Emma, falls in love with Augustus Harley, who

473-604: Is relatively recent. There are examples in the 18th century of catalogues of women writers, including George Ballard 's Memoirs of Several Ladies of Great Britain Who Have Been Celebrated for their Writing or Skill in the Learned Languages, Arts, and Sciences (1752); John Duncombe 's Feminiad , a catalogue of women writers; and the Biographium faemineum: the female worthies, or, Memoirs of

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516-753: Is remembered for her early feminism, and her close relations to dissenting and radical thinkers of her time including Robert Robinson , Mary Wollstonecraft , William Godwin and William Frend . She was born in 1759, into a family of Protestant dissenters who rejected the practices of the Church of England (the established church). Hays was described by those who disliked her as 'the baldest disciple of [Mary] Wollstonecraft' by The Anti Jacobin Magazine , attacked as an 'unsex'd female' by clergyman Robert Polwhele, and provoked controversy through her long life with her rebellious writings. When Hays's fiancé John Eccles died on

559-442: Is the six-volume compendium Female Biography: or Memoirs of Illustrious and Celebrated Women of All Ages and Countries , in which Wollstonecraft is not mentioned, although Hays had written an extensive obituary for The Annual Necrology shortly after Godwin's controversial Memoirs . If Wollstonecraft was neglected through the nineteenth century, Hays and her writing received even less critical evaluation or academic attention until

602-412: Is the son of a dear friend, but lacking an income. Recognizing that he cannot afford marriage, she offers to live with him as his wife without getting married. Emma tells the Frend figure that her desire for him trumps every other consideration: reputation, status, and even chastity. In the most notorious statement in the book, Emma plays on Frend's name: ‘My friend’, she cries, ‘I would give myself to you –

645-545: The University of Kentucky has a series of republications of early women's novels. There has been commensurate growth in the area of biographical dictionaries of women writers due to a perception, according to one editor, that "[m]ost of our women are not represented in the 'standard' reference books in the field." Elaine V. Bellin's book, Redeeming Eve: Women Writers of the English Renaissance , mentions

688-413: The "female gothic" or women's science fiction , for example. Literature is a vast and expansive category of written works. The topics chosen as subjects of books, poems, and essays are characterized by the first-hand experiences people have from their lives. While the women’s writing literary category covers a multitude of subjects and situations, there are clear common themes within works that reflect

731-599: The 18th century with a particular focus on Mary Wollstonecraft and her circle. Earlier discussion of women's broader cultural contributions can be found as far back as the 8th century BC, when Hesiod compiled Catalogue of Women (attr.), a list of heroines and goddesses. Plutarch listed heroic and artistic women in his Moralia . In the medieval period, Boccaccio used mythic and biblical women as moral exemplars in De mulieribus claris (On Famous Women) (1361–1375), directly inspiring Christine de Pisan to write The Book of

774-564: The 1970s there have been a number of literary periodicals (such as Fireweed and Room of One's Own ) which are dedicated for publishing the creative work of women writers, and there are a number of dedicated presses as well, such as the Second Story Press and the Women's Press. In addition, collections and anthologies of women's writing continue to be published by both trade and academic presses . The question of whether there

817-402: The 1970s. The majority of English and American literature programs offer courses on specific aspects of literature by women, and women's writing is generally considered an area of specialization in its own right. The broader discussion of women's cultural contributions as a separate category has a long history, but the specific study of women's writing as a distinct category of scholarly interest

860-522: The City of Ladies (1405). Women writers themselves have long been interested in tracing a "woman's tradition" in writing. Mary Scott 's The Female Advocate: A Poem Occasioned by Reading Mr Duncombe's Feminead (1774) is one of the best known such works in the 18th century, a period that saw a burgeoning of women writers being published. In 1803, Mary Hays published the six-volume Female Biography . Virginia Woolf 's 1929 A Room of One's Own exemplifies

903-484: The Dissenting meeting house. In 1777 she met and fell in love with John Eccles. Their parents opposed the match, but they met secretly and exchanged many letters between 1779 and 1780. In August 1780, just after Eccles received a job which would allow him to marry Hays, Eccles died of a sudden fever. He left Hays all his papers, including the letters she had sent him. Hay's first book, not published in her lifetime,

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946-704: The author and asked to borrow it. This turned into a friendship, in which Godwin became a guide and teacher. She acted on Wollstonecraft's demand that women take charge of their lives and moved out of her mother's home to live as an independent woman in London. This was an extraordinary and unaccustomed act for a single woman in Hays's time: Hays's mother was horrified, and Hays's friends condemned her. Although Hays's family were outsiders from mainstream British culture, Hays's mother still disapproved of her daughter's social rebellion. Her next work, Memoirs of Emma Courtney (1796)

989-636: The belief that women's lives and contributions have been underrepresented as areas of scholarly interest. Much of this early period of feminist literary scholarship was given over to the rediscovery and reclamation of texts written by women. Studies such as Dale Spender 's Mothers of the Novel (1986) and Jane Spencer's The Rise of the Woman Novelist (1986) were ground-breaking in their insistence that women have always been writing. Commensurate with this growth in scholarly interest, various presses began

1032-449: The constricted notions of the properly 'feminine' in social and literary behavior they faced." Using the term "women's writing" implies, then, the belief that women in some sense constitute a group, however diverse, who share a position of difference based on gender. The normative events within a woman’s life do not always coincide with that of a man’s; part of this difference includes the fact that women can bear children. Motherhood has been

1075-414: The cultural productions of other historically marginalized groups has resulted in a whole-scale expansion of what is considered "literature", and genres hitherto not regarded as "literary" (such as children's writing, journals, letters, and travel writing, among many others) are now the subjects of scholarly interest. Most genres and sub-genres have undergone a similar analysis, so that one now sees work on

1118-620: The eve of their marriage, Hays expected to die of grief herself. But this apparent tragedy meant that she escaped an ordinary future as wife and mother, remaining unmarried. She seized the chance to make a career for herself in the larger world as a writer. Hays was influenced by Mary Wollstonecraft 's A Vindication of the Rights of Woman , and after writing admiringly to her, the two women became friends. The backlash following Wollstonecraft's death and posthumous publication of her Memoirs impacted Hays' later work, which some scholars have called more conservative. Among these later productions

1161-464: The famed poets and authors of the world. The categorization of women authors as a separate literary category addresses how inconsistent and inaccurate some men's interpretations of living as a woman can be. The following journals publish research on women's writing mainly or exclusively: Mary Hays Mary Hays (1759–1843) was an autodidact intellectual who published essays, poetry, novels and several works on famous (and infamous) women. She

1204-420: The gift is not worthless’. In real life and in the novel, Frend rejected Hays. Readers were shocked at her inclusion of real letters she had exchanged with Godwin and Frend. Hays's disgrace was juicy gossip in the close-knit group of London publishing. In 1800 Scottish writer Elizabeth Hamilton published Memoirs of Modern Philosophers , a novel that satirised Hays as a sex-hungry man-chaser, and Hays became

1247-414: The ideals of more than one woman. The topic of motherhood, especially pregnancy, is a highly controversial topic within the literary world. Due to the perpetual war being waged in the fight between pro-choice and pro-life lawmaking, the tone in which women writers speak of pregnancy has sparked debate amongst the feminist movement. While some believe that motherhood is a choice and reflects the ideologies of

1290-485: The impulse in the modern period to explore a tradition of women's writing. Woolf, however, sought to explain what she perceived as an absence; and by the mid-century scholarly attention turned to finding and reclaiming "lost" writers. There were many to reclaim: it is common for the editors of dictionaries or anthologies of women's writing to refer to the difficulty in choosing from all the available material. Trade publishers have similarly focused on women's writing: since

1333-415: The income from Female Biography , Hays became known to more literary figures of the time, including Charles and Mary Lamb and William Blake . The last 20 years of her life were difficult, with little income and only moderate praise for her work. During this period, she published Memoirs of Queens, Illustrious and Celebrated (1821). In 1824 Hays returned to London where she died on 20 February 1843. She

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1376-415: The lack of female representation in renaissance literature, and explores the idea of missing evidence of female writers of that period. The widespread interest in women's writing developed alongside, and was influenced by, a general reassessment and expansion of the literary canon . Interest in post-colonial literature , gay and lesbian literature , writing by people of colour, working people's writing, and

1419-413: The larger literary tradition. Recent scholarship on race, class, and sexuality in literature further complicate the issue and militate against the impulse to posit one "women's tradition". Some scholars, such as Roger Lonsdale, mentions that something of a commonality exists and that "it is not unreasonable to consider "women writers" in some aspects as a special case, given their educational insecurities and

1462-399: The most illustrious ladies, of all ages and nations, who have been eminently distinguished for their magnanimity, learning, genius, virtue, piety, and other excellent endowments . Similarly, women have been treated as a distinct category by various misogynist writings, perhaps best exemplified by Richard Polwhele 's The Unsex'd Females , a critique in verse of women writers at the end of

1505-593: The pro-choice movement, in which people have the freedom to choose whether or not they will be a parent, others view motherhood as an “inevitable destiny” that acts as an “imposition from the repressive alliance between biology and patriarchy.” But the topic itself is analyzed further within many works written by female authors. Writers like Sylvia Plath , Elizabeth Acevedo , Diane di Prima , Mina Loy , Elana K. Arnold , Robin Benway , Virginia Woolf, Janet Finch , Mary H. K. Choi , Jessamine Chan , and more have examined

1548-523: The publisher of the book, Joseph Johnson , which led to her friendship with Wollstonecraft and involvement with London's Jacobin intellectual circle. Hays next wrote a book Letters and Essays (1793) and invited Mary Wollstonecraft to comment on it before publication. Although the reviews were mixed Hays decided to leave home and to try to support herself by writing. She moved to Hatton Garden . She did not have enough money to buy Enquiry Concerning Political Justice by William Godwin . Boldly she wrote to

1591-413: The purpose of speaking for women. Walt Whitman , one of the most famed authors of the 19th century, utilized his poem "Song of Myself" to speak for the "maternal as well as paternal" within his work. While his poem was highly revered by critics and cemented his status as a highly acclaimed poet, Whitman's equipment of maternal themes and imagery draws attention away from the women who have firsthand birthed

1634-405: The subject of motherhood from a variety of perspectives, in a multitude of mediums. Many authors detail their experiences as both mothers and writers and the balance that comes with creating new art while caring for their most challenging creation yet. While women's experiences allow them to write of these topics with more empathy for those in similar circumstances, men have been and still write for

1677-484: The task of reissuing long-out-of-print texts. Virago Press began to publish its large list of 19th and early-20th-century novels in 1975, and became one of the first commercial presses to join in the project of reclamation. In the 1980s Pandora Press , responsible for publishing Spender's study, issued a companion line of 18th-century novels by written by women. More recently, Broadview Press continues to issue 18th- and 19th-century novels, many hitherto out of print, and

1720-556: The twentieth-century's emerging feminist movement . Mary Hays was born in Southwark, London 4 May 1759, the daughter of Rational Dissenters John and Elizabeth Hays. They lived in Southwark , London, on Gainsford Street. Her father died young, leaving Hays an annuity of £70 a year, as long as she did not marry without her mother's approval. Hays' early education is shaped by poetry, novels, and religious and political debates at

1763-510: Was based on these letters, re-copied and editorialized into a semi-autobiographical epistolary novel . Hays wrote: "All my pleasures – and every opening prospect are buried with him". After a year in mourning, Hays dedicated herself to an intellectual life of writing. Her first published poem, "Invocation to a Nightingale," appeared in the Lady's Poetical Magazine in 1781. Subsequent early publications in periodical include two poems in 1785, and

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1806-400: Was dangerous to praise Mary Wollstonecraft, and so omitted her from the book. Others have argued that Hays had little to lose and did not include Wollstonecraft for other reasons—her stated reason that she was too recently dead, and because she had already written and published a full obituary that should perhaps be considered part of Female Biography . Moving to Camberwell in 1804 thanks to

1849-698: Was founding member of the Australian Institute of Librarians. Dobbie followed her aunt into the library profession, and believed there was a need to foster women's writing in the community. The awards are currently worth A$ 35,000 in total. The Trust established for the award is managed by Perpetual Limited, and the award is administered in association with the State Library of New South Wales. Both awards were presented annually from their inception until 2016, when they were changed to biennial presentation. In 2020, no awards were presented "due to

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