Nan McDonald

• Name — Nan McDonald • Birth Name — Nancy May McDonald • Born — 25 December 1921 • Birthplace — Eastwood, New South Wales • Died — 7 January 1974 • Place of death — Mount Ousley, New South Wales, Australia • Language — English • Education — BA, University of Sydney • Notable Works — Pacific Sea • Awards — Grace Leven Prize for Poetry • Years Active — 1944-1969

Nancy May McDonald was born in Eastwood, New South Wales, 25 December 1921. She attended Hornsby Girls' High School (1934–38), and studied at the University of Sydney (B.A., 1943). She worked as an editor for Angus and Robertson, where she specialized in Australian literature, with colleagues such as Alec Bolton, Beatrice Davis and Douglas Stewart. In 1953 she edited the annual Anthology of Australian Poetry. She first published in 1947; a review of the collection, Pacific Sea, called her work "essentially Australian" and praised her "exquisite precision". Her poems have also been called "sombre and deathward-drawn". McDonald died aged 52 of cancer on 7 January 1974. An obituary in the Australian Author noted R. D. Fitzgerald's description of McDonald as "the tranquil Australian poet". Several sources record that McDonald's work has yet to be assessed from a critical perspective.

• Pacific Sea (1947) • The Lonely Fire, Sydney, Angus and Robertson, 1954 • The Lighthouse and Other Poems, Sydney, Angus and Robertson, 1959 • Selected Poems: Nan McDonald, Sydney, Angus and Robertson, 1969 • Burn to Billabong: Macdonald Clansfolk in Australia 1788-1988, Sydney, Portofino Design Group, 1988 • For Prisoners: An Unpublished Poem, Canberra, Brindabella Press, 1995