Stephen Edgar was born
in Sydney in 1951 and grew up and was educated there.
In the early seventies he lived in London; on returning to Australia in
1974 he moved to Hobart where he lived until late 2005 when he returned
to Sydney. He studied Classics and English at the University of
Tasmania. For many years he worked in libraries. For the last eighteen
years he has made his living mostly from editing and proofreading.
He has published five collections of poetry:
Queuing for the Mudd Club
(Twelvetrees Publishing, 1985),
Ancient
Music (Angus & Robertson, 1988),
Corrupted Treasures
(William Heinemann, 1995),
Where
the Trees Were (Indigo/Ginninderra, 1999) and
Lost in the Foreground
(Duffy and Snellgrove, 2003). He was awarded the Grace Leven Poetry Prize for
Lost in the Foreground. He won the inaugural Australian Book
Review Poetry Prize in 2005 for ‘Man on the Moon’,
which
appears in
Other Summers,
published by Black Pepper in 2006. Black Pepper is publishing his forthcoming book,
History of the Day, shortly.
His website is located at
stephenedgar.com.au
Additional information on Stephen Edgar can also be found at
The Poetry Archive at poetryarchive.org
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Critical
comments and endorsements
‘Stephen
Edgar’s fifth volume,
Lost
in the Foreground, is a book of marvels, both technically
and in the elegant, magisterial reach of its content. He is wonderfully
inventive...
Lost in
the Foreground
is one of the most accomplished and deeply satisfying books of poetry
published in recent years. Stephen Edgar must be one of the most
masterful poets writing in English today.’
Judith Beveridge, Australian Book Review,
May 2003
‘I am enormously grateful to you for the gift of your
wonderful
book of poems, inscribed and with a kindly acknowledgement to me in
your epigraph. It is a dazzling volume of great wit, delicacy and depth
of feeling; a genuinely virtuoso performance.’
The American poet Anthony
Hecht, private letter
‘Stephen Edgar is quietly building the Augustan garden of
modern
Australian poetry. Seldom have all the imaginable poetic qualities been
combined into such a thoughtful poise, and with so easy-seeming a
lyrical impulse.’
Clive James, from cover
endorsement of Lost in
the Foreground
‘Even Edgar’s admirers cannot have been expecting
such a tour de force as
Lost
in the Foreground.
Virtuosity of technique is combined with original thinking and clarity
of presentation... Australia should welcome the coming-of-age of an
important talent.
Peter Porter, from cover
endorsement of Lost in
the Foreground
‘
Lost in the
Foreground...
is the most overlooked book of the year. Edgar is masterful with
traditional forms and composes a baroque, meditative world.’
Barry Hill, The Weekend Australian,
14-15 February 2004
‘Down there in Hobart... there is Stephen Edgar, for my money
the
most subtle vintage on the market. I chanced on my first bottle of
Edgar Special Blend Reserve only last year, and since then
I’ve
been drinking almost nothing else. Exquisite in the nose and shattering
in the follow-through.’
Clive James, The Weekend Australian,
6-7 March 2004
‘Edgar shows a craft, skill and versatility that delights...
His
play with poetic forms is more supple and rich fruit of stern practice.
His verse always moves confidently. At times the poems are riddling and
one thinks of Edgar as nearer to Wallace Stevens than any other
Australian poet. At others, he is eloquently plain...’
Peter Pierce, The Sydney Morning Herald,
14 June 2003
Biography