Frieda Hughes

Frieda Hughes in 2007. Courtesy Time.

Frieda Hughes
Born	April 1, 1960
Occupation	Poet, painter
Citizenship	Australian
Genres	children's books
Subjects	poetry
Notable work(s)	Stonepicker and the Book of Mirrors

Frieda Rebecca Hughes (born April 1, 1960) is an English-born Australian poet and painter. She has published four collections of poetry and also several children's books, and her artwork has been featured in many exhibitions. 

Life

Hughes is the daughter of American poet Sylvia Plath, who is regarded as one of the most influential poets of the 20th century for her work in confessional poetry, and English poet Ted Hughes, who was Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom from 1984 until his death in 1998. 

Her mother suffered from major depression during her life which culminated in her 1963 suicide, which was heavily publicized in newpapers and tabloids. Her father had an affair with Assia Wevill until her eventual suicide in 1967 which she took her own life and the life of their baby; soon afer Ted remarried Carol Orchard in 1970 and the relationship lasted until his death in 1998 due to complications relating to colon cancer. 

Frieda Hughes was born in London. She moved to Perth, Western Australia in 1988, where the Australian landscape became muse of much of her painted works. She became an Australian citizen in 1992. She married Desmond Dawe, a farmworker, and their marriage lasted from 1979 to 1982, then she married Hungarian artist Laszlo Lukacs in 1996 and stayed married until they divorced in 2010. 

Publications

Poetry

• Wooroloo: Poems. New York: HarperFlamingo, 1998; Newcastle, UK: Bloodaxe Books, 1999.
• Stonepicker. Tarset, UK: Bloodaxe Books, 2001.
  • published in U.S. as Stonepicker and The Book of Mirrors. New York: HarperCollins, 2001.
• Waxworks. New York: HarperCollins, 2003.
• Forty-five. New York: HarperCollins, 2006; Tarset, UK: Bloodaxe Books, 2007.
• The Book of Mirrors. Tarset, UK: Bloodaxe Books, 2009.

Juvenile

• Getting Rid of Edna (illustrated by Ed Levine). London: Heinemann, 1986
  • published in U.S. as Getting Rid of Aunt Edna (illustrated by Ed Levine). New York: Harper & Row, 1986.
• The Meal a Mile Long. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1989.
• Waldorf and the Sleeping Granny. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1990.
• The Tall Story (illustrated by Chris Riddell). Hove, UK: MacDonald Young, 1997.
• Three Scary Stories (illustrated by Chris Riddell). London: Collins, 2001.
• Rent a Friend (illustrated by Chris Riddell). London: Hodder Children's, 2002.
• Thing in the Sink (illustrated by Chris Riddell). London: Hodder Children's, 2002.

Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.

See also

Ted Hughes Festival - Frieda Hughes reads her poems

• List of Australian poets

External links

Poems

• "My Mother"
• Frieda Hughes at the Poetry Center (3 poems)

Audio / video

• Frieda Hughes at YouTube

About

• "Frieda Hughes Escapes the Shadow of Mom Sylvia Plath," People, December 4, 1989
• Frieda Hughes Official website.
• Q&A with Frieda Hughes, Time. 2007