Boisbouvier Chair in Australian Literature

The award-winning Indigenous novelist, Alexis Wright, has concluded her term as Boisbouvier Chair in Australian Literature at the University of Melbourne.  The University of Melbourne’s Boisbouvier Chair in Australian Literature is a unique position founded in 2015 dedicated to inspiring students, emerging writers and the public to explore the crucial role and value of Australian literature.

Professor Wright’s appointment in 2017 placed the University of Melbourne at the forefront of national conversations about the future of Australian Literature in higher education, school curricula and the broader community. A member of the Waanyi nation of the southern highlands of the Gulf of Carpentaria, and author of the prize-winning novels Carpentaria and The Swan Book, Professor Wright is the only author to win both the Miles Franklin Award (in 2007 for Carpentaria) and the Stella Prize (in 2018 for Tracker). Her latest work, Praiseworthy, will be published in October 2022.

During her tenure, Professor Wright leveraged her position to encourage a wider examination of the role of storytelling in community efforts to tackle social issues. Professor Wright addressed some of the major problems confronting contemporary writers and thinkers today: the censorship of truth, and how boundaries of indifference, ignorance and vested political interests are being imposed. Professor Wright’s creative scrutiny of these issues – in articles and hundreds of local, national and international events and engagements as Chair – has inspired other writers, students and the public in face of great societal challenges

Professor Wright’s enthusiastic involvement has strongly reflected these aspirations and has had a tangible impact on writers, students and Indigenous communities, while also generating more informed conversation around these urgent topics. In 2020 alone, as Boisbouvier Chair, she received more than 250 invitations worldwide for writing, speaking and teaching engagements, granting her an opportunity to consider how best to distribute Australian literature across the world. A series of podcasts involving four distinguished Australian authors, Signposts: Stories for our Fragile Times, launched by the University and State Library Victoria, for example, illuminated the role of Australian literature in times of crisis. In this series, Professor Wright led intimate conversations with authors Peter Carey, Nicholas Jose, Christos Tsiolkas and Melissa Lucashenko.

Notable recognition of Professor Wright’s work in 2021 was the decision by the Ministry of Education in France to place her novel Carpentaria as one of three works by international authors for study in the French Agrégation examination to accredit teachers of English in Universities in France. It is the first time in forty-five years that an Australian work of literature has been studied in this examination.

As the Faculty and University celebrate the achievements of Professor Wright, they also turn their attention to the next holder of the Chair. The University of Melbourne’s Boisbouvier Chair in Australian Literature is a unique position founded in 2015 thanks to a generous $5M gift from John Wylie AM and Myriam Boisbouvier-Wylie, and involves a partnership with State Library Victoria. Dean of Arts, Rev Professor Russell Goulbourne stated that he hopes the Chair continues to provoke conversation in the public square about the value of public humanities, providing an opportunity for practising Australian authors to advance appreciation of Australian literature, while enhancing Melbourne’s place as a UNESCO City of Literature.