Fay Zwicky, Australian poet, Died at 83

  Writer

Fay Zwicky, was Julia Fay Rosefield was born on July 4, 1933 and died on July 2, 2017.

She was an Australian poet, short-story writer, critic and academic.

She was primarily known for her autobiographical poem Kaddish, which deals with her identity as a Jewish writer.

Zwicky settled in Perth with her Swiss husband Karl Zwicky (the two married in 1957) and two children (one son, one daughter) and returned to literature working primarily as a Senior Lecturer in American and comparative literature at the University of Western Australia until her retirement in 1987.

From 1978 till 1981 Zwicky was also a member of the Literature Board of the Australia Council in Sydney.

Following her retirement she concentrated on her writing, which won her international recognition.

During 1990, she married her second husband James Mackie, who died some years later.

Zwicky led a very reclusive life in Perth: “I never expect anything. I always think I’m drifting and nobody knows I’m here, and it’s great.”

During 2004 Fay Zwicky was declared a Western Australian “Living Treasure”, a term she called “repulsive … like being prematurely obituarized.

Fay Zwicky passed away at 83 years old.