Olga Masters née Lawler (28 May 1919 – 27 September 1986) was an Australian writer, journalist, novelist and short story writer. Masters' children went on to be notable figures in journalism, media and film making.

Early life

Olga Masters was born in Pambula, New South Wales, the second of eight children.''Celebrating Bega Valley Women'' (2005) Her early life was characterised by the poverty of the

depression era The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagion ...

, her family moving around the South Coast region in search of work. Masters herself began working as a journalist at the age of 15 on the ''Cobargo Chronicle'', a weekly newspaper serving the south coastal area between Bega and

Moruya Moruya is a town located on the far south coast of New South Wales, Australia, situated on the Moruya River. The Princes Highway runs through the town that is about south of Sydney and from Canberra. At the , Moruya had a population of 4 ...

. In 1937, at the age of 18 she moved to Sydney, where she worked in office jobs and met Charles Masters, a teacher, whom she married in 1940. With him, she again travelled around country towns, including Grafton, Lismore and Urbenville, before returning to Sydney.Lewis (1991)

Career

Masters wrote as a journalist for most of her life, and supplemented the family income by writing for local newspapers in the towns she lived in with her husband. On their return to Sydney, she wrote for papers such as ''

The Manly Daily The ''Manly Daily'' is an Australian community newspaper, covering the Northern Beaches region of Sydney. The paper is one of News Corp Australia's community newspapers in New South Wales. It was delivered free to homes and businesses on Wedne ...

'' and ''

The Sydney Morning Herald ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' (''SMH'') is a daily compact newspaper published in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, and owned by Nine. Founded in 1831 as the ''Sydney Herald'', the ''Herald'' is the oldest continuously published newspaper ...

''. While she wanted to write fiction from an early age, she was not published as a writer of fiction until the late 1970s. During this decade she wrote several radio plays, receiving many rejections, but on 29 April 1977, her radio play ''The Penny Ha-penny Stamp'' was broadcast. However, with the publication of her short story, ''Call me Pinkie'', in ''

'' in 1978, she moved from writing drama to prose fiction. Between 1979 and 1980, she won nine awards for her short stories. She wrote fiction full-time from 1982, after the publication of ''The Home Girls''. Due to her late start from age 58 and her relatively early death 11 years later, Masters' published output is small but her impact was disproportionate in that her style and writings about writing inspired many others to take up the craft. In an interview, Masters described her fiction: "All my writing is about human behaviour. There's not much drama, no great happenings in it. No violence. It's about the violence that's inside the human heart, I think, more than anything else". In the same interview she also credits her journalistic career for helping her creative writing: "you would sometimes take quite an ordinary and humble person and write a story about them, and you'd be surprised at the quality that there was in the ordinary human being ... I learned a lot about human nature, and human behaviour, as a journalist ... there is more in life, more in situations, than meets the eye". Webby, in discussing ''The Home Girls'', states that her writing is not experimental, that its "virtues are the classic ones of tight dramatic structure, strong characterisation and believable dialogue". In listing her books for adults and senior students to read, Shapiro wrote that Masters "has been called one of the best writers of fiction in Australia. Comedies of manners written with sensitivity, wit, and exuberance. Novels about mothers and daughters, fathers and sons. A very special novelist who only began writing novels and short stories in her fifties after raising a large family".Shapiro (2002)

Awards

*1977: Tasmanian Literary Awards for ''The Creek Way'' *1978: Grenfell Henry Lawson Awards, 2nd prize for ''A Dog that Squeaked'' *1979: Fellowship of Australian Writers, Qld (FAWQ), R. Carson Gold Award for ''The Snake and Bad Tom'' *1980: The South Pacific Association for Commonwealth Language and Literature Studies Award for ''The Rages of Mrs Torrens'' (jointly with

Elizabeth Jolley Monica Elizabeth Jolley AO (4 June 1923 – 13 February 2007) was an English-born Australian writer who settled in Western Australia in the late 1950s and forged an illustrious literary career there. She was 53 when her first book was publishe ...

) *1983:

National Book Council Award National may refer to: Common uses * Nation or country ** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen Places in the United States * National, Maryland, ce ...

for ''The Home Girls''

Bibliography

Short stories

* '' The Home Girls'' (1982) Review
/small> * '' The Rose Fancier'' (1988) * '' Reporting Home'' (1990) ournalism* ''Collected Stories of Olga Masters'' (1996) *"The Snake and bad Tom"

Novels

* '' Loving Daughters'' (1984) * '' A Long Time Dying'' (1985) Published as a novel, it can also be described as connected short stories. * '' Amy's Children'' (1987)

Drama

* '' The Working Man's Castle'' (1988)

Family

Olga and Charles had seven children: * Roy Masters,

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as just rugby league and sometimes football, footy, rugby or league, is a full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular field measuring 68 metres (75 yards) wide and 112 ...

coach and journalist * Ian Masters, radio broadcaster *

Quentin Masters Quentin is a French male given name from the Latin first name ''Quintinus'', diminutive form of '' Quintus'', that means "the fifth". Albert Dauzat, ''Noms et prénoms de France'', Librairie Larousse 1980, édition revue et commentée par Marie-T ...

, (1946 – ) film maker *

Chris Masters Christopher Todd Mordetzky (born January 8, 1983) is an American professional wrestler, currently signed to National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) under the ring name Chris Adonis as a member of Strictly Business. He is a former two-time National Ch ...

, (1948 – ) journalist * Sue Masters media producer * Deb Masters, media producer * Michael Masters, ( – 1989)

Death

Olga Masters died of a brain tumour in

Wollongong Wollongong ( ), colloquially referred to as The Gong, is a city located in the Illawarra region of New South Wales, Australia. The name is believed to originate from the Dharawal language, meaning either 'five islands/clouds', 'ground near wate ...

Hospital in 1986.

Notes

References

*Adelaide, Debra (1988) ''Australian Women Writers: A Bibliographic Guide'', London, Pandora
"Celebrating Bega Valley Women", in ''Bega Valley News'', 8 March 2005
Accessed: 2007-07-09 *Ellison, Jennifer (1986) ''Rooms of their own'', Ringwood, Penguin
Jones, Dorothy (2005) "Olga Masters (1919–1986)" in ''The Literary Encyclopedia''
Accessed: 2007-07-09 *Lewis, Julie (1991) ''Olga Masters: A lot of living'', St Lucia, UQP

*Webby, Elizabeth (1983) "Short fiction in the eighties: White Anglo-Celtic male no more?" in ''Meanjin'', Vol 42 No 1 (March 1983), pp. 34–41

External links

Adelphia.net: ''On the Train''
— ''short story, mp3''.

{{DEFAULTSORT:Masters, Olga Australian women novelists Australian women short story writers 1919 births 1986 deaths 01 Writers from New South Wales 20th-century Australian novelists 20th-century Australian short story writers 20th-century Australian journalists 20th-century Australian women writers