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Ann-Marie Priest talks about her new book, 'A Free Flame' with ABC Radio's Rhianna Patrick The book is available for purchase here: http://avidreader.com.au/products/a-free-flame HIGHLY COMMENDED IN THE 2016 DOROTHY HEWETT AWARD FOR AN UNPUBLISHED MANUSCRIPT 'I need to be a writer, ' Ruth Park told her future husband, D'Arcy Niland, on the eve of their marriage. 'That's what I need from life.' She was not the only one. At a time when women were considered incapable of being 'real' artists, a number of precocious girls in Australian cities were weighing their chances and laying their plans. A Free Flame explores the lives of four such women, Gwen Harwood, Dorothy Hewett, Christina Stead and Ruth Park, each of whom went on to become a notable Australian writer. They were very different women from very different backgrounds, but they shared a sense of urgency around their vocation - their 'need' to be a writer - that would not let them rest. Weaving biography, literary criticism and cultural history, this b