Judith Lonie

Judith Muriel Lonie (née Benson; 1935–1982) was an Australian-born New Zealand poet.

Judith Lonie
BornJudith Muriel Benson
1935
Australia
Died18 December 1982 (aged 46)
Newcastle, UK
Occupation
  • Poet
  • speech therapist
Years active1971–1982
Spouse
​
(m. 1969⁠–⁠1982)​
Children2

Life and career

Lonie was born in Australia in 1935.[1] She and her first husband had a daughter, born in 1957.[2]:22

In 1961, she met Iain Lonie, New Zealand poet and academic, at the University of Sydney. She was a postgraduate student in his department. In 1965, Lonie moved to Dunedin, and she followed him in 1966. They were married in 1969.[2]:22 In 1970 she self-published a chapbook named Seascapes.[2]:23

Lonie's first volume of poetry, Earth into Moon, was published in 1971.[3] It was published by the Bibliography Room at the University of Otago, and printed by the firm of John McIndoe.[4] Her poetry was included in the first anthology of women's verse in New Zealand, Private Gardens: An Anthology of New Zealand Women Poets, published in 1977 and edited by Riemke Ensing.[5][6] Her son was born in 1973.[2]:23

Lonie and her husband moved to England in 1978 in order that she could gain a professional qualification in speech therapy from the University of Newcastle.[1][7] Lonie graduated in 1982 and gained a position at Newcastle General Hospital as a speech therapist.[2]:23 During her studies, she co-authored an article with Ruth Lesser regarding the use of intonation by brain-damaged patients.[8]

Death

Lonie died suddenly in December 1982, not long after her graduation and before she could start working as a speech therapist.[2]:24 Her second volume of poetry, The Remembering of the Elements, was published posthumously in 1984.[1][9] A review in Canadian Literature noted the personal nature of the collection and that it "struggles with images of framing (being "put in the picture") and of disintegration".[10]

Lonie's husband's final three volumes of poetry, published in 1984, 1986 and 1991, record the intense grief he felt about her death and his difficulties in coming to terms with it.[11]

The Oxford Companion to New Zealand Literature describes Lonie's poetry as having "an often impersonal tone, contrasting with its personal subject matter": "She looks at strangers, at intimates and at self with a slightly curious, and sometimes judgmental detachment."[1] Her poems have been published in several anthologies since her death, including Yellow Pencils: Contemporary Poetry by New Zealand Women (1988) compiled by Lydia Wevers,[12] and Shards of Silver (2006), an anthology of poetry and photography compiled by Paul Thompson.[13][14]

References
  1. Whiteford, Peter (2006). "Lonie, Judith". In Robinson, Roger; Wattie, Nelson (eds.). The Oxford Companion to New Zealand Literature. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/acref/9780195583489.001.0001. ISBN 978-0-1917-3519-6. OCLC 865265749. Retrieved 30 October 2020.
  2. Lonie, Iain M. (2015). Howard, David (ed.). A Place to Go On From: the collected poems of Iain Lonie. Dunedin, New Zealand: Otago University Press. ISBN 978-1-9273-2201-7.
  3. Lonie, Judith (1971). Earth into Moon. Dunedin, NZ: University of Otago, Bibliography Room.
  4. "The Black Art: Handprinting in the Bibliography Room, 1961–2005 – Cabinet 15". University of Otago. Retrieved 10 November 2020.
  5. Ensing, Riemke, ed. (1977). Private gardens : an anthology of New Zealand women poets. Dunedin, N.Z.: Caveman Press. ISBN 0908562608.
  6. Wilson, Janet (2006). "Anthologies of women's writing". In Robinson, Roger; Wattie, Nelson (eds.). The Oxford Companion to New Zealand Literature. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/acref/9780195583489.001.0001. ISBN 978-0-1917-3519-6. OCLC 865265749. Retrieved 30 October 2020.
  7. Longrigg, James (January 1989). "Obituaries – Iain Malcolm Lonie". Medical History. 33 (1): 124. doi:10.1017/S0025727300048948. S2CID 30596025. Retrieved 30 October 2020.
  8. Lonie, Judith; Lesser, Ruth (1983). "Intonation as a cue to speech act identification in aphasic and other brain-damaged patients". International Journal of Rehabilitation Research. 6 (4): 512. Retrieved 11 November 2020.
  9. Lonie, Judith (1984). The Remembering of the Elements: Poems 1969–1978. Wellington, N.Z.: Wai-te-ata Press. ISBN 0908693001. Retrieved 10 November 2020.
  10. New, W.H. (Spring 1986). "Last Page" (PDF). Canadian Literature (108): 204. Retrieved 17 November 2020.
  11. Whiteford, Peter (2006). "Lonie, Iain". In Robinson, Roger; Wattie, Nelson (eds.). The Oxford Companion to New Zealand Literature. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/acref/9780195583489.001.0001. ISBN 978-0-1917-3519-6. OCLC 865265749. Retrieved 30 October 2020.
  12. Wevers, Lydia, ed. (1988). Yellow pencils : contemporary poetry by New Zealand women. Auckland: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-1955-8178-2.
  13. Thompson, Paul, ed. (2006). Shards of Silver. Wellington, N.Z.: Steele Roberts. ISBN 1877338591. Retrieved 10 November 2020.
  14. "Shards of Sliver: Paul Thompson's Images on Language - New Zealand Poets on Photography". Dear Reader. Retrieved 10 November 2020.
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