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Granting a working mother’s wish

January 04, 2005

Felicity Pluncket 003.jpgA mum-to-be and senior lecturer at the University of New England has been awarded a grant from the Australia Council to write a book, “Accidents of Birth”.
Dr Felicity Plunkett (pictured) said her work would be a mixture of prose and poetry and trace a “birth year” in Australia, including the first three months of the newborn’s life.
“The book will include an exploration of myths about creativity and motherhood … and be juxtaposed by poems exploring the experiences of women refugees,” Dr Plunkett said.
The Australia Council is the Federal Government’s arts funding and advisory body and annually awards grants to an array of artists. The $5000 grant awarded to Dr Plunkett is specifically for emerging writers.
To be nominated for such a grant, recipients must have written a number of published poems and/or short stories.
Dr Plunkett’s works have been published over the past 10 years, in a number of Australian and international journals, including Heat, Southerly and the US Literary Review.
One of her pieces, “Sleeping Like a Baby”, won a short story competition run by the ABC.

"I have a two-year-old son Benjamin and my second baby is due in late March, so this grant is well-timed since it will enable me to write from home while I look after my children,” Dr Plunkett said.
She has already begun writing the poem sequence and hopes to nearly finish the piece while on maternity leave.
“I aim to explore the similarities in women’s lives and in births, as well as the spectrum of experiences,” Dr Plunkett said.
“The ‘accident’ motif [in the title] refers to things that are beyond personal control and reflects ideas both of idealised imagined births and the more intense and sometimes difficult realities that can fracture these.”
Dr Plunkett started working at UNE seven years ago, following a career which took her from Sydney University, to Tasmania and Newcastle Universities.
Her partner, Dr David Hamer, is a lecturer in Law at UNE.
For more information phone Lydia Roberts on 6773 2779 or Dr Plunkett on 6771 1238.


Posted by Lydia Roberts at January 4, 2005 01:00 PM