Alan Wearne (born 23 July 1948) is an Australian poet.

Early life and education

Alan Wearne was born on 23 July 1948[1] and grew up in Melbourne.[2] He studied history at Monash University, where he met the poets Laurie Duggan and John A. Scott.[3] He was involved in the Poets Union.[4]

Career

After publishing two collections of poetry, he wrote a verse novel, The Nightmarkets (1986), which won the Australian Book Council Banjo Award[5] and was adapted for performance with Monash University Student Theatre.[6]

His next book in the same genre, The Lovemakers, won the Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry and the NSW Premier's Book of the Year in 2002,[7] as well as the Arts Queensland Judith Wright Calanthe Award.[8] The first half of the novel was published by Penguin, and its second by the ABC in 2004 as The Lovemakers: Book Two, Money and Nothing and co-won The Foundation for Australian Literary Studies' Colin Roderick Award[9] and the H. T. Priestly Medal. Despite this critical success neither book was promoted properly and both volumes ended up being pulped.[10] Shearsman Press in the UK has since republished the book in a single volume.^{[citation needed]}

These Things Are Real was published in 2017 by Giramondo Publishing.

Wearne lectured in Creative Writing[11] at the University of Wollongong until 2016.[12]

Books

• Public Relations (1972)
• New Devil, New Parish (1976)
• The Nightmarkets (Penguin, 1986) ISBN 0-14-007586-0
• Out Here (Newcastle upon Tyne : Bloodaxe Books 1987) ISBN 0-906427-72-X
• Kicking In Danger (Black Pepper 1997) ISBN 1-876044-20-9 review
• The Lovemakers: Book One, Saying All The Great Sexy Things (Penguin, 2001) ISBN 0-14-024541-3
• The Lovemakers: Book Two, Money and Nothing (ABC, 2004) ISBN 0-7333-1359-0 review review
• Sarsaparilla A Calypso (Polar Bear Press, 2007)
• The Australian Popular Songbook (Giramondo 2008) ISBN 978-1-920882-41-9
• Prepare the Cabin for Landing (Giramondo 2012) ISBN 9781920882945
• These Things Are Real (Giramondo 2017) ISBN 978-1-925336-32-0

References

Further reading

• ALM Australian Literature Resources : Alan Wearne Contents page excerpts etc.
• Review

External links

• Official website
• Literary papers at UNSW Collections, Canberra