Anthony Lawrence Australia

Anthony Lawrence was born in 1957 and left school at 16, working first as a jackeroo and then travelling for several years before returning to New South Wales to become a teacher and writer. It was while working as a fisherman in Western Australia that he secured a literary fellowship which enabled him to devote time to writing poetry. Over time, his poems have appeared in numerous Australian and international literary magazines, including Meanjin, Overland, Poetry Australia, LiNQ, Salt, and Antipodes (USA).

Anthony Lawrence has received a number of Australian Literature Board Grants and has won numerous awards for his poetry, including the inaugural Judith Wright Calanthe Award (Queensland Premier's Poetry Prize), the Harri Jones Memorial Award, the Gwen Harwood Memorial Prize (in 1996) and the Newcastle Poetry Prize in 1997. He recently won the Claudio Alcorso Award, 2003 — a residency enabling research and writing in Italy.

He currently lives in Hobart, Tasmania, and is the recipient of a Senior Fellowship from the Australia Council — one of the most prestigious funding awards a writer can be accorded in Australia.

(2006)