Geoff Page
Encyclopedia
Geoffrey Donald Page is an Australia
n poet
, translator, teacher and jazz
enthusiast.
He has published over seventeen collections of poetry, as well as prose and verse novels. Poetry and jazz are his driving interests, and he has also written a biography of the jazz musician, Bernie McGann
. He organises poetry readings and jazz events in Canberra
.
, Curtin University, the Australian Defence Force Academy
, and the University of Wollongong
and as the Chair of the Australian Socialist Alliance. From 1974 to 2001 Page was head of the English department at Narrabundah College
, a secondary college in the A.C.T.
. He retired from teaching in 2001.
He has travelled widely, talking on Australian poetry in Switzerland, Britain, Italy, Singapore, China, the United States and New Zealand. His poetic style ranges from lyrical to satirical, from serious to humorous - and often addresses his concerns about contemporary society and politics. Judith Beveridge writes that 'Page is a humanely satirical poet. He lets us view our condition with a fusion of the comic and the tragic.
Page is the poetry reviewer for ABC
Radio's The Book Show and, for a decade before that, its Books and Writing program.
, in his 1983 review of The Younger Australian Poets (edited by Robert Gray and Geoffrey Lehmann)
wrote of Page:
Undated yet:
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
n poet
Poet
A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...
, translator, teacher and jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
enthusiast.
He has published over seventeen collections of poetry, as well as prose and verse novels. Poetry and jazz are his driving interests, and he has also written a biography of the jazz musician, Bernie McGann
Bernie McGann
Bernie McGann is an Australian jazz alto saxophone player. He began his career in the late 1950s and is still active as a performer, composer and recording artist.- Biography :...
. He organises poetry readings and jazz events in Canberra
Canberra
Canberra is the capital city of Australia. With a population of over 345,000, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The city is located at the northern end of the Australian Capital Territory , south-west of Sydney, and north-east of Melbourne...
.
Career
Page has held residencies at numerous academic, military and political institutions, including Edith Cowan UniversityEdith Cowan University
Edith Cowan University is located in Perth, Western Australia. It was named after the first woman to be elected to an Australian Parliament, Edith Cowan, and is the only Australian university named after a woman....
, Curtin University, the Australian Defence Force Academy
Australian Defence Force Academy
The Australian Defence Force Academy is a tri-service military Academy that provides military and tertiary academic education for junior officers of the Australian Defence Force in the Royal Australian Navy , Australian Army and Royal Australian Air Force .Tertiary education is provided by the...
, and the University of Wollongong
University of Wollongong
The University of Wollongong is a public university located in the coastal city of Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia, approximately 80 kilometres south of Sydney...
and as the Chair of the Australian Socialist Alliance. From 1974 to 2001 Page was head of the English department at Narrabundah College
Narrabundah College
Narrabundah College is a government college that teaches the last two years of secondary education in the Australian Capital Territory. It was the first school in Australia to offer the International Baccalaureate, starting the programme in February 1978....
, a secondary college in the A.C.T.
Australian Capital Territory
The Australian Capital Territory, often abbreviated ACT, is the capital territory of the Commonwealth of Australia and is the smallest self-governing internal territory...
. He retired from teaching in 2001.
He has travelled widely, talking on Australian poetry in Switzerland, Britain, Italy, Singapore, China, the United States and New Zealand. His poetic style ranges from lyrical to satirical, from serious to humorous - and often addresses his concerns about contemporary society and politics. Judith Beveridge writes that 'Page is a humanely satirical poet. He lets us view our condition with a fusion of the comic and the tragic.
Page is the poetry reviewer for ABC
Australian Broadcasting Corporation
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly referred to as "the ABC" , is Australia's national public broadcaster...
Radio's The Book Show and, for a decade before that, its Books and Writing program.
Style
Australian poet, John TranterJohn Tranter
John Ernest Tranter is an Australian poet, publisher and editor. He has a long list of achievements in writing, publishing and broadcasting...
, in his 1983 review of The Younger Australian Poets (edited by Robert Gray and Geoffrey Lehmann)
wrote of Page:
He is not a self-promoter, and his modest output has been inadequately represented in recent anthologies, as the editors of this one quite properly point out. His poetry has been influenced loosely by the American William Carlos WilliamsWilliam Carlos WilliamsWilliam Carlos Williams was an American poet closely associated with modernism and Imagism. He was also a pediatrician and general practitioner of medicine, having graduated from the University of Pennsylvania...
. In general, the spare precision of Williams' short lines is a good preventive against galloping garrulity, and in Page's hands it delivers a dry and particularly Australian accent and a thoughtful movement from phrase to phrase. The short line, as a model, can be overdone: 'of 3 a.m.' is an example that does little for me. Page's technique is low-key — his French and American influences are invisible in the texture of his localised speech — yet it enables him to range widely among language and experience.
Awards and nominations
- Queensland Premier's Literary AwardsQueensland Premier's Literary AwardsThe Queensland Premier's Literary Awards were inaugurated in 1999 and have grown to become a leading literary awards program within Australia, with $225,000 in prizemoney over 14 categories. One of Australia's richest prizes, top categories offer up to $25,000 for 1st prize.-Fiction Book...
for Poetry - 2001: Patrick White AwardPatrick White AwardThe Patrick White Award is an annual literary prize established by Patrick White. White used his 1973 Nobel Prize in Literature award to establish a trust for this prize....
- 2001: Grace Leven Prize for PoetryGrace Leven Prize for PoetryThe Grace Leven Prize for Poetry is an annual award given in the name of Grace Leven who died in 1922. It was established by William Baylebridge who "made a provision for an annual poetry prize in memory of 'my benefactress Grace Leven' and for the publication of his own work"...
, for Darker and Lighter - 2004: ACT Writing and Publishing AwardsACT Writing and Publishing AwardsThe ACT Writing and Publishing Awards are an Australian literary award presented by the ACT Writers Centre for the best books in the categories of non-fiction, fiction, poetry and children's literature written in the Canberra region. They have been awarded since 2004...
for poetry for The Indigo Book of Modern Australian Sonnets (editor) - 2006: Christopher Brennan AwardChristopher Brennan AwardThe Christopher Brennan Award is an Australian award given for lifetime achievement in poetry. The award, established circa 1976, takes the form of a bronze plaque; it recognizes a poet who produces work of "sustained quality and distinction"...
Selected works
- The Question (in Two Poets) (1971)
- Smalltown Memorials (1975)
- Collecting the Weather (1978)
- Cassandra Paddocks (1980)
- Clairvoyant in Autumn (1983)
- Collected Lives (1986)
- Smiling in English, Smoking in French (1987)
- Footwork (1988)
- Selected Poems (1991)
- Gravel Corners (1992)
- Human Interest (1994)
- A Reader's Guide to Contemporary Australian Poetry (1995)
- The Secret (1996)
- The Great Forgetting (Geoff Page and Bevan Hayward Pooaraar) (1997)
- Bernie McGann: A Life in Jazz (1997)
- The Scarring (1999, verse novel)
- Collateral Damage (1999)
- Darker and Lighter (2001)
- My Mother's God (2002)
- The Indigo Book of Modern Australian Sonnets (as editor) (2003), winner of the 2004 ACT Writing and Publishing AwardsACT Writing and Publishing AwardsThe ACT Writing and Publishing Awards are an Australian literary award presented by the ACT Writers Centre for the best books in the categories of non-fiction, fiction, poetry and children's literature written in the Canberra region. They have been awarded since 2004...
for poetry - Drumming on Water (2003, verse novel)
- Cartes Postales (2004)
- Agnostic Skies (2006)
- 60 Classic Australian Poems (2009, and a companion to his 80 Great Poems from Chaucer to Now}
Undated yet:
- Freehold (verse novel)
- Shadows from Wire (Poems and Photographs in the Great War as Editor)
- Benton's Conviction (A Novel)
- Century of Clouds (Selected Poems of Guillaume Apollinaire, translations with Wendy Coutts)