Clare Wright
 

HISTORIAN | AUTHOR | BROADCASTER

 

‘Clare Wright is the most remarkable and striking voice working on recovering the lost and forgotten pages of Australian history. Her work, as accessible as it is scholarly, is of the greatest importance.’

William Dalrymple, author of The Anarchy and The Golden Road

Professor Clare Wright OAM is an award-winning historian, author, broadcaster, podcaster and public commentator who has worked in politics, academia and the media. Clare is currently Professor of History and Professor of Public Engagement at La Trobe University.

She is the author of five works of history, including the best-selling The Forgotten Rebels of Eureka (winner of the 2014 Stella Prize) and You Daughters of Freedom . Her latest book, and the final instalment in her Democracy Trilogy, is the highly acclaimed Näku Dhäruk: The Bark Petitions which won the Queensland Literary Award for Non-Fiction and NT History Book Award and was shortlisted for the Prime Minister’s Literary Awards, Victorian Premiers Literary Awards, Age Book of the Year Awards, Australian Political Book of the Year and ABIA Awards, and was longlisted for a Walkley Award and the NIB Literary Award. Clare has written and presented history documentaries for ABC TV and is Associate Producer of the feature film One Mind One Heart, written/directed by Larissa Behrendt, which won the NSW Digital History Award. She also hosts the ABC Radio National history podcast, Shooting the Past, co-hosts the La Trobe University podcast Archive Fever (with Yves Rees) and is Executive Producer of Hey History! the first Australian history podcast designed for use in the classroom.

In 2020, Clare was awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia in the Australia Day Honours list for ‘services to literature and to historical research’. Clare is Chair of the National Museum of Australia Council and past Board Director of the Wheeler Centre for Books, Writing and Ideas.

About Clare
 
 

Winner, Queensland Literary Awards: University of Queensland Non-Fiction Book Award, 2025

Winner, Northern Territory History Award, 2025

Shortlisted, Prime Minister’s LIterary Award, Australian History, 2025

Shortlisted, Victorian Premier’s Literary Award, Non-Fiction, 2025

Shortlisted, Age Book of the Year, Non-fiction, 2025

Shortlisted, NSW History Awards, Australian History Prize, 2025

Shortlisted, The Australian Political Book of the Year, 2025

Shortlisted, ABIA Small Publishers’ Adult Book of the Year, Non-Fiction, 2025

About Näku Dhäruk