Editorial

Peter Porter (1929–2010)

by Peter Rose •

June 2010, issue no. 322

Editorial

Peter Porter (1929–2010)

by Peter Rose •

June 2010, issue no. 322

Poetry in English has lost one of its paragons, Australian literature one of its finest ambassadors, and Australian Book Review a beloved friend with the death in London of Peter Porter, aged eighty-one. He died on 23 April – Shakespeare’s birthday – by which time our May issue had already gone to print.

Peter Porter’s first collection, Once Bitten, Twice Bitten, appeared forty-nine years ago. His awards were many, notable among them the Duff Cooper Prize for his first Collected Poems (1983) and the Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry in 2002. He lived to see an advance copy of his new Selected Poems, titled Rest on the Flight, which Picador UK has just published, and which Allen & Unwin will publish here in October.

Peter Rose

In 2001 Peter Rose became the Editor of Australian Book Review. Previously he was a publisher at Oxford University Press throughout the 1990s. He has published several books of poetry, a family memoir, Rose Boys, and two novels, the most recent being Roddy Parr (Fourth Estate, 2010). He edited the 2007 and 2008 editions of The Best Australian Poems (Black Inc.). His newest book of poems is Rag (Gazebo Books, 2023). Peter Rose’s long experience in publishing and the literary world complements the magazine’s history of central involvement in Australian letters.