Rita Snowden
Jo has received a Friends of the Alexander Turnbull Library Research Grant at the National Library of New Zealand to research and write about the life of author Rita Snowden. Jo will be using the grant to stay in Wellington and Christchurch in May – June 2025 to access archives.
Iso Rae
Jo has been shortlisted for the 2025
Hazel Rowley Fellowship Literary Fellowship
which supports Australian writers working on biography projects
to work on her biography of artist Iso Rae.
In 2024, Jo began research on the life and work of Australian artist, Iso Rae, known for her paintings from Etaples, France and pastels during WWI.
Yvonne Boyd
Jo was shortlisted for the 2023 Hazel Rowley Fellowship to research and write about Yvonne Boyd.
In May 2023, Jo was granted a writer’s residency to research and write about Yvonne Boyd (wife of Arthur). https://www.bundanon.com.au/2023-bundanon-air-announcement/
This project is on hold until more Boyd family papers are released to view.
Adelaide Perry
Jo’s biography Adelaide Perry: artist & teacher was released in October 2022. https://scholarly.info/book/adelaide-perry/
Events
Adelaide Perry was part of the Modernist art movement in Australia and one of the innovative women printmakers between the wars. This biography explores her life and work over a period when the lives of women changed radically.
Adelaide studied at the National Gallery School in Melbourne and won the travelling scholarship in 1920 to study at the Royal Academy of Art in London. She drew, painted and exhibited her work all her life. She taught firstly at Julian Aston’s Sydney School of Art before establishing the Adelaide Perry School of Drawing and Painting where she mentored a number of significant Australian artists. Adelaide taught at the girl’s school, Presbyterian Ladies’ College Sydney for over thirty years and positively influenced many young women.
The Adelaide Perry Gallery has been named in her honour and holds the prestigious Adelaide Perry Prize for Drawing each year continuing the legacy of this remarkable Australian woman artist and teacher.
Royal Academy of Art London 1922
Jessie Traill
Jo’s biography of artist Jessie Traill was published in 2020.
https://scholarly.info/book/jessie-traill/
This biography explores the remarkable life of Jessie Traill – artist, traveller, humanitarian and independent spirit. From the ten-year-old who first met Tom Roberts painting on the shores of Port Phillip Bay, to a student of Frederick McCubbin and etchers John Mather and Frank Brangwyn, Jessie developed her professional skills. She also became one of Australia’s most outstanding etchers, working in a field uncommon for women of her time. Through diary extracts, descriptions of her world travels and personal letters we hear her voice and see through her eyes, beauty, humour and the joys of simple living.
Jo has spoken about her research and writing her biography of Jessie Traill. You can hear her speak and view slide shows at:
Stories of life 