Poets' Corner with Geoff Goodfellow

Poets' Corner

Poet's Corner is WestWords' monthly encounter with celebrated Australian poets, curated by David Ades.

Each month a poet is invited to read and talk about their poetry on a theme of the poet's choice.

Geoff Goodfellow has established a reputation for giving voice to a wide range of people who wouldn’t normally be the subjects of poetry or prose. He left school at fifteen and began to write in 1982 at the age of thirty-three. He had worked for many years in semi-skilled occupations. Essentially, he is an auto-didact.

In February of 2008 Geoff was diagnosed with cancer of the throat and told he had one to five years to live. Geoff continues to defy the odds. In 2011 he published Waltzing with Jack Dancer: a slow dance with cancer (Wakefield Press). His first collection of poetry No Collars No Cuffs was launched at Adelaide Writer’s Week in 1986. It has been re-printed nine times. Ten books have followed, most going into multiple print runs. An eleventh book, his first book of short stories Out of Copley Street (Wakefield Press) will be launched at the Hawke Centre in Adelaide on October 29th by Professor Rick Sarre, Dean of Law at UniSA.

Geoff has worked as a writer-in-residence in school, jails, youth detention centres, drug & alcohol rehabilitation units, building and construction sites, factories, mad-houses…as well as in universities in Australia and overseas. He has toured Canada, USA, Cuba, China, Europe and the UK, giving readings of his work as well as taking up residencies. In 1988 Geoff was awarded the Inaugural Carclew Fellowship at the Festival Awards for Literature, to assist the development of young South Australian writers.

In 2002 his collection Poems for a Dead Father was short listed for the Age Book of the Year award. His poems have appeared in The Best Australian Poetry 2009 and The Best Australian Poems 2011, 2012, 2014 & 2015. Geoff grew up in the inner-northern suburbs of Adelaide but has lived most of his adult life close to the beach at Semaphore.

Website: www.geoffgoodfellow.com

You can purchase Geoff's books here:

https://www.wakefieldpress.com.au​

https://www.wakefieldpress.com.au/pro...​

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