Mr Philip Salom
Sessional Lecturer, Creative Writing
Qualifications
BA Eng (Curtin) Dip Ed (Curtin) MA Melb
Biography
Philip Salom has written ten books of poetry and two novels. He has won major national and international awards for his work and further acclaim through reviews and guest appearances/reading tours/residencies in the UK, USA, Canada, Italy, the former Yugoslavia, New Zealand, Singapore. He has been a poetry editor and reviewer and has delivered keynote speeches and lectures in Australia, Macedonia (the Struga International Poetry Festival), the US (at the Iowa International Writing Programme), Singapore, and New Zealand.
In 2004 he was awarded the Christopher Brennan prize, a lifetime award "for poetry of sustained quality and distinction". And in 2006/07 he was awarded the Australia Council's prestigious Writers Fellowship of $80,000.
Current research
Apart from contemporary poetry and fiction - includes studies in consciousness, language, neurology, creativity and mysticism. Much of his recent work has drawn on studies and research in neurological areas, particularly memory deficit - aphasia, amnesia and dementia.
Also important - the inter-play between linguistic density and poetic narrative. The use of under-voices and heteronyms and fugues in narrative dynamics. The poet as 'hidden' in a narrative that refers forwards while 'revealed' in memory that refers backwards.
Teaching
Coordination and teaching:
- 106-366: Writing Through Character
- 106-480: Life Writing
- 106-364: Poetry and Poetics
Publications
Books
- The Family Fig Trees, (Picaro Press, 2007)
- The Well Mouth - nearly a verse novel (Fremantle Arts Centre Press, 2005)
- Toccata and Rain (Fremantle Arts Centre Press, 2004)
- A Cretive Life (Fremantle Arts Centre Press, 2001)
- New and Selected Poems (Fremantle Arts Centre Press, 1998)
- Sky Poems (Fremantle Arts Centre Press, 1987 and 1996)
- The Rome Air Naked (Penguin, 1996)
- Feeding the Ghost (Penguin, 1993)
- Playback (Fremantle Arts Centre Press, 1991 and 2003)
- Barbeque of the Primitives (University of Queensland Press, 1989)
- The Projectionist - a verse novel (Fremantle Arts Centre Press, 1983)
- The Silent Piano (Fremantle Arts Centre Press, 1980)
Forthcoming Books
-
The Keepers (a double collection of poetry: verse novel plus lyrics in heteronym) 2009
- Aftershock (a lyric-verse-family-narrative)
Chapbooks
- Tremors, (National Library, Canberra, 1992)
- Poems, with John Kinsella, (Folio, 1990)
Plays
- Always Then and Now (commissioned by and performed for the 1993 Festival of Perth and for ABC RN.
Major literary prizes
- Commonwealth Poetry Prize (London) - overall Best Book in the British Commonwealth in 1987 - for Sky Poems
- Commonwealth Poetry Prize (London) - best First Book in the British Commonwealth in 1981 - for The Silent Piano
- WA Premiers Prize for Poetry in 1984 - for The Projectionist
- WA Premiers Prize for Poetry in 1988 - for Sky Poems.
- WA Premiers Prize for Fiction in 1992 - for Playback
- Sky Poems - only poetry collection shortlisted for The Age Book of the Year, 1987.
Other books have been Runners-up in 1984 Adelaide Festival Literary Award, the 1984 WA Premiers Prize; and Shortlisted in the National Book Prize for Poetry in 1990 and 1993, and in the Victorian Premiers Prize, 1998.
More Recently:
- Toccata and Rain - shortlisted for the 2004 ALS Gold Medal for Literature
- Toccata and Rain - shortlisted for 2004 WA Premiers Prize for Fiction
- The Well Mouth - Best Books of 2005 (Poetry) - Sydney Morning Herald
- The Well Mouth - shortlisted for the 2006 John Bray Poetry Prize, Adelaide Festival Awards
Other awards
- Winner - of 1996 Newcastle Poetry Prize (for long poems)
- Winner - of 2000 Newcastle Poetry Prize (for long poems)
- Winner - of 1992 Australia-New Zealand Exchange Fellowship
- Winner - of 2004 Christopher Brennan Award - a lifetime award "for poetry of sustained quality and distinction"
Awards for funding writing/research
- Writers Fellowship (current) - $80,000 over two years, 2006/7 - Australia Council
- Four major Writers Fellowships - equiv $40,000 - Australia Council in 1985, 1987, 1989, 1992.
- A Three-year Writers Grant ($75,000) - Australia Council
- One Writers Fellowship - $40,000) - from ArtsWA