Lisa Gorton Biography

Lisa is a poet, essayist and fiction writer. She studied literature at the Universities of Melbourne and Oxford. After winning the Vincent Buckley Poetry Prize she travelled in Ireland for six months and went to study at Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar. There, she completed a Masters in Renaissance Literature and Doctorate on John Donne, and received the John Donne Society Award for Distinguished Publication in Donne studies. During her studies, Lisa worked as a visiting tutor at Rhodes University, South Africa. Returning to Australia, Lisa’s first poetry collection Press Release (2007) was shortlisted for the Mary Gilmore Poetry Prize and Melbourne Prize Best Writing Award, and received the Victorian Premier’s Prize for Poetry. In 2008 she published a children’s novel, Cloudland. Her second poetry collection Hotel Hyperion (2013) was shortlisted for the Queensland Literary Awards and Western Australian Premier’s Prize for Poetry and received the Philip Hodgins Memorial Medal. Lisa’s novel The Life of Houses is forthcoming from Giramondo in April 2015.