Australia’s ‘inconvenient’ women writers blazed a trail through the 20th century

Katharine Susannah Prichard, Miles Franklin, Kylie Tennant, Mary Gilmore, Marjorie Barnard and Pamela Travers. Public domain, Wikimedia Commons

In Inconvenient Women, Jacqueline Kent shines a spotlight on some of Australia’s most radical and influential writers.

For Kent, these iconic women were “inconvenient” in many ways. They pursued careers as journalists, poets and novelists at times when many women were relegated to the private sphere. They spoke out against injustices, despite the personal cost. They lived unconventional lives, personally and professionally. And they embodied alternative forms of womanhood.