Stephen Edgar
Stephen Edgar is an Australian poet, editor and indexer.
Background and education
Edgar was born in 1951 in Sydney, where he attended the prestigious Sydney Technical High School. After time spent living in London, he later returned to Australia, going on to study classics and librarianship at the University of Tasmania.Poetry
His first published poetry appeared in 1979 in the Tasmanian literary quarterly Island. From 1986 to the present he has been subeditor of Island and was poetry editor between 1989 and 1994. He is the author of seven books of poetry.As well as extensive publication of his verse in print media, Stephen Edgar has published poetry in online poetry magazines such as Snorkel, The Poetry Foundation, The Chimaera, and The Flea.
As poet Kevin Hart observed, Edgar "is distinctive for a firm commitment to closed forms and for showing considerable panache in handling them".
Other critical material on Stephen Edgar includes a close reading by Clive James of Edgar's "Man on the Moon" in the Poetry Foundation's online magazine.
Edgar's Eldershaw was shortlisted for the Queensland Literary Awards and the Prime Minister's Literary Awards.
Awards
- 1984 – Harri Jones Memorial Prize for Poetry
- 2003 – Grace Leven Prize for Poetry and William Baylebridge Memorial Prize
- 2005 – Australian Book Review Poetry Prize
- 2006 – Philip Hodgins Memorial Medal for an outstanding contribution to Australian literature, at the Mildura Writers' Festival.
- 2009 – William Baylebridge Memorial Prize
- 2011 – Dorothy Porter Poetry Prize
- 2013 – Australian Catholic University Literature Award
- 2014 – Colin Roderick Award
- 2021 – Prime Minister's Literary Award for Poetry, ''The Strangest Place: New and selected poems''