In 1994, Australian poet Dorothy Porter published a distinctive work: "The Monkey's Mask." This was a lesbian crime novel written in verse, breaking the boundaries of traditional literature.
Read Also...:
Bob Trevino Likes It is the remarkable story of a mistaken Facebook friend request, and the healing it gave
03-20, 2025
Wanda Gibson wins $100,000 Victorian Prize for Literature with picture book Three Dresses
03-20, 2025
Two new plays show disability representation is improving but theatre still has a long way to go
03-20, 2025
The truth behind Adolescence, the new Netflix series exploring incels and Andrew-Tate-style misogyny
03-20, 2025This cross-genre work became a bestseller upon its release and was adapted into a stage play, film, and radio play. For Porter, known for her erotically charged works, this was undoubtedly the pinnacle of her career, which previously included "Akhenaten" (1992), depicting the lustful Egyptian pharaoh Akhenaten.
"The film thrilled her," said her sister, Josie McSkimming, on ABC's "Late Night Live." McSkimming also stated, "Dorothy loved telling stories, and she was very interested in developing narratives."
The success of "The Monkey's Mask" was particularly meaningful for Porter because she had long struggled to gain recognition from the literary establishment. She felt extremely frustrated by her repeated failures to secure literary grants year after year. "She was full of rage," McSkimming said. "It seemed like the big names in poetry always got the money, and she was very cross about it. Her diaries are full of it."
However, her popularity stood in stark contrast to this: at poetry readings, Porter was a charismatic performer who deeply captivated her audience. Her fans were enthralled by her work. "She made poetry very entertaining and engaging," McSkimming said.
Porter published over a dozen collections of poetry and verse novels during her lifetime. In 2004, she was diagnosed with breast cancer and died four years later at the age of 54. Now, two decades later, McSkimming has written a family memoir, "The Courageous Girl: Love, Poetry, and Sisterhood," to commemorate her sister's legacy.
Growing up on Sydney's Northern Beaches, McSkimming always admired her "brave and fearless" sister, who showed a keen interest in writing from a young age. Porter's earliest literary creation was a "universal prayer book" filled with images of popes and the Virgin Mary, along with "various quirky prayers" dedicated to her mother, Jean. "I still have it," McSkimming said. "My mother treasured it… It was a very unusual little book."
At the age of 14, Porter decided to become a writer. At the University of Sydney—where one of her teachers was David Malouf—she quickly became a prominent poet. She won the student magazine "Honi Soit's" poetry competition in her first year and revitalized the previously "moribund" Sydney University Poetry Society. In 1975, at just 21 years old, she published her first collection of poetry, "Little Hoodlum." "Few people have that degree of confidence in their craft, creativity, and ability," McSkimming said. "She manifested it in spades."
However, hidden beneath Porter's bold and confident exterior was a vulnerability stemming from her turbulent childhood. McSkimming, a trained psychotherapist, said she tried to avoid analyzing her sister and their family dynamics in the memoir. However, she acknowledged, "The trauma of our childhood probably left Dorothy, me, and Mary (our other sister) with anxieties, fear of relationships, difficulty trusting, tension around intimacy. It was a very volatile family."
In the eyes of the world, their father, Chester Porter QC, was a prominent Australian barrister and a model citizen. "He was a very, very successful man," McSkimming said. "He was also highly socially responsible and instilled that sense of responsibility in his children." However, in private, Chester—who McSkimming said suffered abuse from his mother, Coralie, throughout his life—was prone to violent outbursts. "He had a very bad upbringing himself, which left him terribly scarred. I'm not excusing his worst behavior, but it does explain why he was so enraged and took it out on the family: Jean, my mother, and the three of us girls," McSkimming said.
She described how their family was constantly on edge, living in fear of Chester's anger. As the eldest daughter, Porter took on the responsibility of protecting her sisters and often clashed with her father. Chester's behavior remained a family secret for many years. In "The Courageous Girl," McSkimming writes, "We kids thought it was normal… The idea that someone would call the police was unthinkable."
Over time, the sisters found refuge in different places. "I found myself throwing myself into the evangelical church, trying to find something that wasn't about the family," McSkimming said. Porter found solace in poetry. "She threw herself into her work."
The film adaptation of "The Monkey's Mask" starred Susie Porter and American actress Kelly McGillis ("Witness," "Top Gun"). Porter and McGillis—who played the seductress Diana in the film—hit it off during filming. "They were madly flirting with each other," McSkimming said. "Dorothy fell in love with a character of her own creation."
Porter's brief infatuation with the glamorous actress was one of many she experienced throughout her life. "Her oldest addiction was to wallow in desire and longing," McSkimming wrote in her memoir. "Dorothy was very passionate and very interested in love and romance. Her teenage and twenty-something diaries, basically until she died, are full of love," she said. This passion fueled her writing.
Porter used "the people she loved... as a source of inspiration for her writing," McSkimming wrote. "Her passions fueled her work." However, her 16-year relationship with fellow writer Andrea Goldsmith—whom she met at a writers' event in 1992—proved to be her most enduring. In 2003, the couple became the first same-sex couple to be shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Literary Award in the same year: Porter for "Wild Surmise" and Goldsmith for "The Prosperous Thief." (Alex Miller won for "Journey to the Stone Country"). It was Goldsmith who cared for Porter when she was diagnosed with cancer.
"She was very frightened of dying because she loved life so much, and she wanted to be with all of us," McSkimming said. Shortly before her death in 2008, Porter wrote her last poem, "View from Room 417," in the hospital, which was published in "The Bee Hut." It captured her irrepressible spirit and vitality:
"The sky—the dusk sky—is a wash of vaporous blue, friendly and otherworldly… Still, deep down, I can’t believe my luck."
Throughout her life, Porter was a passionate advocate for poetry. "She always thought that poetry could express emotion, narrative, feeling, story, everything, better than prose. She loved that in Greek culture, the poet could overthrow the republic." Porter was also drawn to music. She collaborated with composer Jonathan Mills on opera librettos and with musician Tim Finn on a rock opera, which eventually became "The Fiery Maze," staged in 2016.
Three of Porter's works, "The Bee Hut," "Love Poems," and "On Passion," were published posthumously. In her book, McSkimming writes about how her sister's poetry changed her life. When McSkimming made the difficult decision to leave the church in her 40s, she turned to Porter's poetry for strength. "I was changing my whole sense of life," she wrote in her memoir; her sister's poetry was "singing to me."
McSkimming's favorite Porter poem is "Faith," from "Other Worlds" (2001), which she feels captures the newfound freedom of a "recovering apostate." The poem begins: "I have lived a life lit by dreams and suffocated by them." McSkimming still considers herself her sister's biggest fan. "Dorothy is my, burning bright, creative hero," she wrote.
