A Universe of One's Own

Overview

Three powerful essays tracing a life in language, from the rhythms of first words to taking Virginia Woolf's call for equality into today and beyond

Antonia Hayes' adventures in language began when, as a young child, she was a word sponge, soaking up speech and phrases and the sometimes haunted spaces in between. She became a natural bookworm, turning to the Baby-Sitters Club series to start a lifetime of finding friends and comfort in the pages of a book. When her debut novel, Relativity, was published, she again turned to literature for guidance and consolation, this time in the form of Virginia Woolf's A Room of One's Own. Woolf wished for financial independence and a room of one's own in which to write, but Hayes, writing almost 90 years later, argues here that perhaps women writers need a whole universe of their own. Buoyed by hope and a lifetime of language, Hayes tells us how we can disturb the universe before A Room of One's Own turns 100.

Reviews

"Her work soars." —Publishers Weekly

Author Biography

Antonia Hayes has been published in Best Australian Essays, Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, Daily Life, and others. Antonia has worked in publishing as a publicist and a bookseller, and co-directed Australia's National Young Writers' Festival. She is the author of Relativity.