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Bristol welcomes Australia’s leading poet, Les Murray

Image of Les Murray

Press release issued: 18 September 2015

Les Murray, Australia’s foremost poet and one of the greatest contemporary poets writing in English, will give the Bristol Poetry Institute annual reading for 2015 on Thursday 1 October in the Great Hall of the Wills Memorial Building.

Born in New South Wales in 1938, Murray has published nearly 30 volumes of poetry, two verse novels and collections of prose writings during a career spanning more than 40 years. 

His work has been published in ten languages and has won many literary awards, including the Grace Leven Prize (1980 and 1990), the Petrarch Prize (1995), and the prestigious TS Eliot Award (1996).  In 1999 he was awarded the Queens Gold Medal for Poetry on the recommendation of Ted Hughes.  He is an Officer of the Order of Australia (OA).  

His latest volume of poetry ‘Waiting for the Past’ was published in 2015.

The Bristol Poetry Institute was founded in 2012 with the aim of bringing together scholars, students, poets and poetry-lovers across the University of Bristol and the wider community and forging links both domestically and internationally to promote discussion and debate on poetry in all its forms.  Its annual readings have previously featured Carol Ann Duffy (2012), Sir Andrew Motion (2013) and the Jamaican Poet Laureate, Mervyn Morris (2014).

This event is free, but please order tickets in advance

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