Dorothy Porter

Dorothy Featherstone Porter (26 March 1954 – 10 December 2008) was an Australian poet. She was a recipient of the Christopher Brennan Award for lifetime achievement in poetry.

Early life Porter was born in Sydney. Her father was barrister Chester Porter and her mother, Jean, was a high school chemistry teacher. Porter attended the Queenwood School for Girls. She graduated from the University of Sydney in 1975 with a Bachelor of Arts majoring in English and History.

Works and awards Porter's awards include The Age Book of the Year for poetry, the National Book Council Award for The Monkey's Mask and the FAW Christopher Brennan Award for poetry. Two of her verse novels were shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Award: What a Piece of Work in 2000 and Wild Surmise in 2003. In 2000, the film The Monkey's Mask was made from her verse novel of the same name. In 2005, her libretto The Eternity Man, co-written with composer Jonathan Mills, was performed at the Sydney Festival.

Porter's last book published during her life was El Dorado, her fifth verse novel, about a serial child killer. The book was nominated for several awards including the inaugural Prime Minister's Literary Award in 2007 and for Best Fiction in the Ned Kelly Awards.

Two other works have been published posthumously: her poetry collection The Bee Hut (2009), as well as has her final completed work, an essay on literary criticism and emotions, entitled On Passion.

Porter, who found many outlets for writing, including fiction for young adults and libretti for chamber operas, was working on a rock opera called January with Tim Finn at the time of her death. and in 1993 moved to Melbourne to be with her partner, fellow writer Andrea Goldsmith. The couple were coincidentally both shortlisted in the 2003 Miles Franklin Award for literature.

Porter was a self-described pagan, committed to pagan principles of courage, stoicism and commitment to the earth and beauty.

Death Porter had been suffering from breast cancer for four years before her death, but "many thought she was winning the battle," according to journalist Matt Buchanan.

Brett Dean dedicated the first movement of his "Epitaphs for string quintet (viola quintet) (2010)" in memory of Dorothy Porter.