Poets' Corner with Alex Skovron

Poets' 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. Alex Skovron was born in Poland, lived briefly in Israel, and emigrated to Australia aged nearly ten. His family settled in Sydney, where he grew up and completed his studies. From the early 1970s he worked as an editor for book publishers in Sydney and (after 1980) Melbourne. His poetry has appeared widely in Australia and overseas, and he has received a number of major awards for his work. The most recent of his six poetry collections, Towards the Equator: New & Selected Poems (2014), was shortlisted in the Prime Minister’s Literary Awards. The Attic, a selection of his poetry translated into French, was published in 2013, and a bilingual volume of Chinese translations, Water Music, in 2017. Alex’s poetry has also been translated into Dutch, Macedonian, Polish and Spanish. His collection of short stories The Man who Took to his Bed (2017), and his novella The Poet (2005), have been published in Czech translations. The numerous public readings he has given have included appearances in China, Serbia, India, Ireland, Macedonia, Portugal, and on Norfolk Island. His next collection of poems, Letters from the Periphery, is forthcoming in 2021. Publications: Poetry The Rearrangement (1988) Sleeve Notes (1992) Infinite City: 100 Sonnetinas (1999) Chess and other poems (chapbook, 2002) The Man and the Map (2003) Autographs: 56 poems in prose (2008) Towards the Equator: New & Selected Poems (2014) Fiction The Poet: a novella (2005) The Man who Took to his Bed (stories, 2017) In translation The Attic (French bilingual: trans. Jacques Rancourt, 2013) Básník: novela (Czech: trans. J. Tomáš and H. Tomková, 2014) Water Music (Chinese bilingual: trans. Xu Daozhi, 2017) Muž, který ulehl do své postele (Czech: trans. J. Tomáš and H. Tomková, 2019) Audio Towards the Equator (CD: author read