Ann-Marie Priest’s new biography of Australian poet Gwen Harwood, My Tongue Is My Own, shows us the passion behind the poems, and makes us question the way we view the public figures we love.
It is perhaps out of affection for her public image that Harwood ultimately ensured her biography would only be written after her death. Two would-be biographers, Gregory Kratzmann and Alison Hoddinott were encouraged and entreated to continue, but ultimately gave up the status of biographers for the status of dear friends and editors of the Collected Poems. After Harwood’s death, John Harwood, Gwen’s son and literary executor, only gave Priest permission to print from Harwood’s archived papers when he read the first draft of her biography.
