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Poets post-1900
Jennifer Rankin, from her book Ritual Shift, Gargoyle Poets (Makar Press), 1976. Photographer unknown.
Jennifer Rankin (1941–1979) was born Jennifer Haynes in Sydney in 1941. She was educated at Ravenswood Methodist School for Girls on Sydney’s North Shore and in 1958 was Dux of the school and president of the Debating Society. Rankin majored in English and Psychology at the University of Sydney and gained an Arts degree. She associated with the Push, a loose group of inner city bohemians . She married John Roberts and in January 1965 her son Thomas was born in Canberra. In 1966 Rankin left her husband and returned to Sydney and lived for a time with Frank Moorhouse. John and Lyn Tranter introduced her to the poet and painter David Rankin in 1968. They were married in 1969, and had a daughter. Her husband encouraged her to write poetry and by 1973 she was published in New Poetry magazine. She was encouraged in her writing by Ted Hughes, Galway Kinnell and Margaret Atwood. In October 1977 she was awarded a six month Writer’s Fellowship from the Literature Board. Rankin also wrote plays for radio and theatre, including ‘Bees’ (1974) and ‘Razorback Mountain Journey’ (1976). Rankin’s poetry was widely published in Australia, the UK and the USA. She died from cancer in 1979. (Source: Adapted from ‘Introduction by Judith Rodriguez’ (xi-xxxi) in Jennifer Rankin Collected Poems ed. Judith Rodriguez, University of Queensland Press, 1990.)
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