MS 9406
Papers of Nicolette Stasko (1950- )
Scope and Content Note
Papers
1979-98
1.96 metres (14 boxes) and 1 folio
Available for reference, with the exception of the correspondence, in
Series 1/6-10, and the journals in Series 3/1-6, which are restricted. The
letters in Series 1/11 are closed until 2008
The papers were purchased from Nicolette Stasko in 1998.
The papers comprise correspondence, notebooks, journals and diaries,
drafts and other papers relating to Staskos poetry, prose, articles and
reviews. Also included are manuscripts for Abundance (1992), Black
night with windows (1994) and Staskos as yet unpublished prose work,
originally called Half Moon Bay,but later called The
invention of everyday life.
Amongst the correspondence are letters from friends, other writers and
publishers, including Inez Baranay, Bruce Beaver, Beverley Farmer, Norman di
Giovanni, Lynn Hard, A.D. Hope, Alane Rollings, Veronica Brady, and John
Kinsella.
The papers were received in good order and the Library has maintained
Staskos file arrangement.
The Library also holds the papers of Nicolette Staskos partner,
David Brooks (MS 8075)
Biographical Note
Nicolette Stasko was born in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, in 1950, the
daughter of Alice Cecelia Paliszewski and John James Stasko. Stasko first
started writing poetry and stories during her school years.
In 1968 she commenced her Bachelor of Arts at Pennsylvania State
University, completing it, with honours in English, in 1971. In 1975 she
undertook her MA in Education at Lehigh University. It was during her
university years that Staskos first poems were published. Stasko wrote
poetry only sporadically for a number of years while she pursued her teaching
career, working in an experimental school for the socially and emotionally
disturbed. During this period she also translated parts of John Gowers
Confessio amantis with accompanying essays. These were published in a
compilation by University Press of America in 1982.
Stasko married an Australian in 1978, travelling in America, Europe,
India, Nepal, Thailand and Malaysia, before arriving Australia in 1979. She
taught English literature at Perth Modern School.
After separating from her husband, Stasko met David Brooks and their
daughter Jessica Lane Stasko Brooks was born in 1985. It was at this time that
she began writing poetry again and was introduced to the Perth literary circle,
meeting many of those whose correspondence can be found in these papers.
Moving to Canberra in 1986, Stasko worked casually at Narrabundah
College and continued to expand her literary friendships and to develop her own
writing. She became the associate and fiction editor for The Phoenix
review and had her first poem published in Australia in Hecate in
1987. Tim Curnow of Curtis Brown became her literary agent and she began
reviewing for newspapers and journals. Her first public reading was with R.F.
Brissenden and David Brooks during Canberra Arts Week, and her second with
Dorothy Porter and Craig Powell at the Taurus Café.
Abundance was published in 1992, by which time Stasko had moved
to Sydney and begun writing full time. Abundance won the Anne Elder
Prize and was short listed for other awards. Staskos writing career
continued with readings on radio shows, at the National Word Festival and at
many other events, an appearance on Vox Populi on SBS, and
invitations to participate in the Melbourne Festival.
A second collection of poetry, Black night with windows
(HarperCollinsAngus & Robertson, 1994) was launched by Don Anderson at
Annandale Galleries.
Australian literary magazines such as Westerly, Fine line,
Southerly, Mattoid, Overland extra, Island and SALT have published her
work and it has also been included in the anthologies Shadows in a wall: an
anthology of poetry and prose (1986), Wordhord (1989), The
poetry of Canberra (1990)and Mendorong jack kuntikunti : sepilihan
sajak dari Australia (1991)
Stasko took two years recovering from injuries received in a car
accident in 1994. The injuries made typing and reading very difficult, but she
was awarded a fellowship at Varuna in 1996 and she began writing again, trying
a new area of essays on art and literature (eg for Photofile). She
also wrote reviews for the Australian book review.
Ms Stasko became an Australian citizen in 1996.
In 1997 Stasko was included in The New Oxford book of Australian
verse (1996) and spent some months working on The invention
of everyday life (working title Half Moon Bay). The
Australia Council awarded Stasko a Writers Grant in 1997. In 2000 Stasko
published Oyster: from Montparnasse to Greenwell Point
(HarperCollins). Her third collection of poetry, In certain light,
is to be published by Black Pepper in 2001.
Series List
| Series |
Title |
| 1 |
Correspondence, 1986-98 |
| 2 |
Drafts and notebooks |
| 3 |
Journals and diaries, 1979-96 |
| 4 |
Abundance (1992) |
| 5 |
Black night with windows
(1994) |
| 6 |
The invention of everyday
life |
| 7 |
Miscellaneous papers |
Series Descriptions
Series 1 Correspondence, 1986-98
The first part of the series consists of letters from friends and
publishers, correspondence relating to the Phoenix review, postcards,
invitations and flyers. There are also newspaper clippings.
The personal correspondence gives an indication of the personal literary
friendships that Stasko has formed and of their interest in each others
work. Included are copies or drafts of other writers prose and poetry works in
progress.
The submission records in folders 14-17 include copies of Staskos
work, acceptances of her work and related correspondence and rejections and
comments on some of her poems. There are also editorial suggestions.
The final part is correspondence relating to Staskos publications,
including some financial records.
Folders 6-10 are restricted. Folder 11 is closed until 2008.
|
Folder |
|
|
1-5 |
General correspondence, 1986-97 |
|
6 |
Correspondence with Inez Baranay |
|
7 |
Correspondence with Bruce Beaver, 1992-98 |
|
8 |
Correspondence with Beverley Farmer, 1988-97 |
|
Correspondence with Norman Thomas di Giovanni, 1993-95 |
|
9 |
Correspondence with Lynn Hard, 1990-97 |
|
10 |
Correspondence with A.D. Hope, 1988 |
|
Correspondence with Alane Rollings, 1989-94 |
|
11 |
Closed |
|
12 |
Letters received from students after a reading at Spokane
Primary School, Washington, 1994 |
|
13 |
The practice of male editing, containing editorial
suggestions for journal submissions and related correspondence, 1988-89
|
|
14-17 |
Submission records, 1988-97 |
|
18 |
Correspondence relating to Staskos publications, for
example, royalty statements, permission rights, remaindering, Public Lending
Right information and financial records |
Series 2 Drafts and notebooks
The notebooks contain early notes and ideas. The drafts are of early
poems that were never published, and also for reviews, short stories, essays
and journal articles.
|
Folder |
|
|
1 |
Notebook containing early poems and also beginnings of
Abundance, 1985? |
|
2-4 |
Notebooks |
|
5 |
Early poems which were never published |
|
6-7 |
Manuscripts of early reviews and prose for the Phoenix
review and the Canberra times. |
|
8-10 |
Review and essay manuscripts |
|
11 |
Early short stories and early prose fiction |
|
12-13 |
Short story drafts |
|
14 |
Four drafts of Passages: the art of Beverley Farmer,
and letter of acceptance for publication in the September 1998 Beverley Farmer
issue of Southerly. |
|
15 |
Drafts of Invocation and exorcism, an article
written on Adam Geczys work from the Body exhibition at the Art Gallery
of New South Wales, for Photofile, related papers, and four slides of
Geczys paintings, 1997-98 |
|
16 |
Unpublished poems |
Series 3 Journals and diaries, 1979-96
The journals are very personal journals of Staskos life at the
time, some containing personal letters as inserts, while the diaries are
appointment diaries.
Folders 1-6 are restricted.
|
Folder/Item |
|
|
1 |
Journal, 1979 |
|
2 |
Journal, 1983/84 |
|
3 |
Journal, 1985 |
|
4 |
Journal, 1986 |
|
5 |
Journal, 1988/89 |
|
6 |
Journal, 1989/90 |
|
7 |
Diaries, 1989 |
|
8 |
Diaries, 1990 |
|
9 |
Diaries, 1992 |
|
10 |
Diaries, 1994 |
|
11 |
Diaries, 1996 |
Series 4 Abundance (1992)
Abundance, a collection of poems by Stasko, was published by
CollinsAngus & Roberston in 1992. It was launched by J.S. Harry. It won the
Anne Elder award, and was short listed for the National Book Awards, and the
NSW Premiers Prize, both of which were won by Les Murray, and for the
Mary Gilmore Award.
Drafts, ranging from unused early poems to the manuscript sent to the
publisher, comprise the bulk of this series. Some notes, fragments and
clippings can also be found in the first notebook in Series 2 (MS 9406/2/1) and
also in one of the notebooks in series 5 (MS 9406/5/1)
Correspondence relating to the book from the publishers, Staskos
agent, and friends, completes this series. There are a variety of other papers
included, such as reviews, papers about the book launch and readings by Stasko
of her work, invitations and flyers and some newspaper clippings. There are
also papers relating to poetry readings on the ABC.
|
Folder |
|
|
1-2 |
Unused early poems and drafts |
|
3 |
Drafts of the title poem, including a draft with annotations by
the American poet Alane Rollings |
|
4 |
Drafts of poems |
|
5-7 |
Drafts of poems, cover mock up, notes, contents and
acknowledgements pages |
|
8 |
Manuscript sent to Penguin, March 1991 |
|
9 |
First and second manuscripts sent to Angus and Robertson
|
|
10-11 |
Correspondence, 1990-92 |
|
12 |
Angus & Robertson literature catalogue that includes
Abundance |
Series 5 Black night with windows (1994)
In 1994 Staskos second collection of poetry, Black night with
windows, was published by HarperCollinsAngus & Robertson.
Edited versions and part versions of the manuscript, the final
manuscript and a proof copy of the manuscript form the major part of this
series. One of the notebooks contains notes and drafts for Kitchen
poems as well as notes and fragments for Black night with windows,
while the other notebook also contains early drafts of poems for
Abundance.
The remainder of the series comprises poems not used and poems used in a
talk at the Five Dock Primary School, correspondence, both personal and with
her publisher, and a small file of letters, newspaper clippings, copies of
magazines and other papers relating to publicity and poetry readings.
|
Folder |
|
|
1 |
Two notebooks and early manuscript |
|
2-6 |
Edited draft manuscripts |
|
7-8 |
Various versions of edited manuscripts sent to HarperCollins in
Australia, 1995 |
|
9 |
Copy of final manuscript sent to HarperCollins |
|
10 |
Final proof |
|
11 |
Poems not used
Poems for talk at Five Dock Primary School |
|
12-13 |
Correspondence |
|
14 |
Papers concerning publicity and readings |
Series 6 The invention of everyday life
The series contains manuscripts, both full and partial and a notebook
with early notes for the title. Most of the manuscripts are entitled Half
Moon Bay, with some variations.
|
Folder |
|
|
1 |
Notebook |
|
2-12 |
Edited partial and full manuscripts |
|
13 |
Copy of manuscript sent to Picador, 1997 |
|
14 |
Edited draft manuscript, February 1998 |
Series 7 Miscellaneous papers
The small group of papers that make up this series includes a copy of
Staskos honours thesis and other papers such as tickets, flyers, a draft
paper for a panel discussion and correspondence for the 1992 Melbourne Writers
Festival in which Stasko participated. Programs for literary events and
manuscripts sent to Stasko complete this series.
|
Folder/Item |
|
|
1 |
Honours thesis: Ulysses, the fulfilment of an aesthetic
theory, 1971? |
|
2 |
Grant applications, 1993-96 |
|
3 |
Papers relating to the 1992 Melbourne Writers Festival and
Staskos participation |
|
4 |
1993 New South Wales State Literary Awards program and 1994
Sydney Writers Festival program |
|
5 |
Manuscripts sent to Stasko |
|
6 |
Manuscript of Sisters (Angus & Robertson, 1993)
edited by Drusilla Modjeska |
Box List
| Box |
Series |
Folder |
| 1 |
1 |
1-5 |
| 2 |
1 |
12-17 |
| 3 |
1 |
18 |
| |
2 |
1-8 |
| 4 |
2 |
9-16 |
| 5 |
3 |
1-6 |
| 6 |
3 |
7-11 |
| |
4 |
1-3 |
| 7 |
4 |
4-10 |
| 8 |
4 |
11-12 |
| |
5 |
1-6 |
| 9 |
5 |
7-14 |
| 10 |
6 |
1-6 |
| 11 |
6 |
7-13 |
| 12 |
6 |
14 |
| |
7 |
1-5 |
| 13 |
1 |
6-11 |
| Folio |
7 |
6 |
April 2000 |