B r i e f L i f e
Beyond the divine comedy of everyday life, the territory most writers traverse, much of Tredinnick’s work—in poetry, prose, advocacy, and teaching—has explored the syntax of places and the ecologies of speech.
“His is a bold, big-thinking poetry, in which ancient themes (especially the theme of our human relationship with landscape) are recast and rekindled.”
—Sir Andrew Motion
In 2020, Tredinnick was awarded the Order of Australia Medal for services to literature and education.
Tredinnick’s other honours include two State Premiers’ Literature Prizes, The Blake and Newcastle Poetry Prizes, the ACU and Ron Pretty Poetry Prizes, two Premiers’ Literature Awards, and the Calibre Essay Prize. The Blue Plateau, his landscape memoir, shortlisted for the Prime Minister’s Prize.
Dr Tredinnick’s poetry and prose are translated into many languages (German, French, Italian, and Spanish). In recent years his work has become widely known in China. In April 2019, he spent a month in residence at the Lu Xun Academy in Beijing, a guest of the International Writers Program. A selection of one hundred of his poems appears in Chinese in 2021, along with a book of his essays.
Birdfish will publish Mark’s fifth collection, A Beginner’s Guide, in January 2022, to mark his sixtieth birthday.
D r M A R K
T R E D I N N I C K ~ O A M
—BA (Hons), LLB (Hons), MBA, PhD—is a celebrated poet, essayist, and teacher. His most recent collection of poems (his fourth) is Walking Underwater (June 2021). His many other works of poetry and prose include A Gathered Distance, Almost Everything I Know, Egret in a Ploughed Field, Bluewren Cantos, Fire Diary, The Blue Plateau, and The Little Red Writing Book.
Since 2003, Tredinnick has published over two hundred works—poems, essays, reviews, papers, and books. For twenty-five years, he’s taught poetry and expressive writing at the University of Sydney, where he was poet in residence in 2018. He is a beloved teacher (of writing, literature and ecology), and he’s mentored many writers into print. His many honours include two of the world’s foremost poetry prizes, the Montreal and the Cardiff. “His is a bold, big-thinking poetry,” Sir Andrew Motion has written, “in which ancient themes (especially the theme of our human relationship with landscape) are recast and rekindled.” “One of our great poets of place,” Judy Beveridge has called him.
“One of our great poets of place”
—Judy Beveridge
Much of Tredinnick’s work—in poetry, prose, advocacy, and teaching—has explored the syntax of places and the ecologies of speech. “Our future and our place in it,” he has written, “may depend on how well we care for the health of both—land and language.” The moral and spiritual landscapes, the geography of what was once called the soul: this also is Tredinnick’s literary terrain.
Tredinnick is the father of five. He writes and lives with his partner Jodie Williams in the Wingecarribee, southwest of Sydney.
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“Mark Tredinnick’s are among the only long poems I find myself actively wanting to read… Each poem has the feel of a well-balanced canoe, sound enough to navigate larger waters deftly.”
—Jane Hirshfield
H O N O U R S &
A W A R D S
In the 2020 Australia Day Honours, Tredinnick received a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) for services to literature and education.
Books
The Tibetan Golden Antelope Prize (winner, poetry), 2023: House of Thieves
Western Australian Premier’s Book Award (winner, poetry), 2011: Fire Diary
Queensland Premier’s Literary Awards (winner, nonfiction), 2010: The Blue Plateau
Prime Minister’s Literary Awards (shortlisted), 2010: The Blue Plateau
ACT Book of the Year (shortlisted), 2010: The Blue Plateau
Poems
1st Prize
Ron Petty Poetry Prize, winner 2017: “Panic Very Softly, Love”
ACU Prize for Literature, winner 2016: “The Horse”
Cardiff International Poetry Prize, winner 2012: “Margaret River Sestets”
Montreal International Poetry Prize, winner 2011: “Walking Underwater”
Newcastle Poetry Prize, winner 2011: “The Wombat Vedas”
Blake Poetry Prize, winner 2008: “Have You Seen”
Newcastle Poetry Prize, winner 2007: “Eclogues”
Gwen Harwood Poetry Prize, winner 2005: “The Child & Time”
2nd Prize
Newcastle Poetry Prize, second 2023: “Lines for Late Winter; Or, the Reef Heron”
Newcastle Poetry Prize, second 2018: “The River Running Shallow”
ACU Prize for Literature, second 2013: “Light Years”
Josephine Ulrick Poetry Prize, runner up 2009: “Red Tulips”
3rd Prize
ACU Poetry Prize for Literature, third 2022: “Cubist Landscape”
ACU Poetry Prize for Literature, third 2019: “October Morning After Rain”
Newcastle Poetry Prize, third 2013: “Two or Three Days in late October with Claude Debussy”
Shortlisted
Blake Poetry Prize, shortlisted, 2024: “October”
Newcastle Poetry Prize, shortlisted 2023: : “Fall”; “Lines for Late Winter; Or, the Reef Heron”
Newcastle Poetry Prize, shortlisted 2022: “All Week, the Early Skies of May”
ACU Poetry Prize for Literature, shortlisted 2022: “The Divine Image”
ACU Poetry Prize for Literature, shortlisted 2022: “Red Guard”
ACU Poetry Prize for Literature, shortlisted 2022: “After an Illness”
ACU Poetry Prize for Literature, shortlisted 2022: “At Dusk Along the River”
ACU Poetry Prize for Literature, shortlisted 2022: “A Letter Sent in Midsummer in Reply to a Photograph Taken in Midwinter”
Blake Poetry Prize, shortlisted 2022: “Flatrock, September”
ABR (now Peter Porter) Poetry Prize, short listed 2019: “Raven”
ACU Poetry Prize for Literature, shortlisted 2019: “The Blue Pasture”
Newcastle Poetry Prize, shortlisted 2019: “The News”
Newcastle Poetry Prize, shortlisted 2019: “Grace, and a Barking Owl”
Newcastle Poetry Prize, shortlisted 2018: “The Reservoir”
Newcastle Poetry Prize, shortlisted 2018: “Grief Wears a Body”
ACU Poetry Prize, shortlisted 2016: “Shred”
ACU Poetry Prize, shortlisted 2016: “End of Lonely Day”
Ron Pretty Poetry Prize, shortlisted 2015: “What?”
Ron Pretty Poetry Prize, shortlisted 2015: “The Propinquity of Snow”
Ron Pretty Poetry Prize, shortlisted 2014: “Nightfishing”
ACU Poetry Prize, shortlisted 2014: “Weeding”
ACU Poetry Prize, shortlisted 2014: “Spring Snow, Reno”
ACU Poetry Prize for Literature, shortlisted 2013: “Faith”
ACU Poetry Prize for Literature, shortlisted 2013: “The Reader”
Montreal International Poetry Prize, shortlisted 2011: “The Kingfisher”
Blake Poetry Prize, shortlisted 2011: “At Home on a Sunday Trying to Find Nothing to Do”
Newcastle Poetry Prize, shortlisted 2009: “Brisbane River Blues”
Blake Poetry Prize, shortlisted 2008: “Windflowers”
Newcastle Poetry Prize, shortlisted 2006: “Lake St Clair Cycle”
ABR (now Peter Porter) Poetry Prize, shortlisted 2005: “Ubirr Rock”
Longlisted
Manchester Poetry Prize, longlisted 2023
University of Canberra Vice-Chancellor’s International Poetry Prize, longlisted 2014: “Walking My Name Back Home”
University of Canberra Vice-Chancellor’s International Poetry Prize, longlisted 2014: “That Day”
Montreal International Poetry Prize, longlisted 2011: “You Over There; Me here: A Whodunnit in Three Stanzas”
Montreal International Poetry Prize, longlisted 2011: “The Bay”
Montreal International Poetry Prize, longlisted 2011: “Sandhill Cranes”
Commended
Rosemary Dobson, commended 2010: “Rain in Eltham”
Blake Poetry Prize, highly commended 2008: “Paradise”
Essays
Calibre Essay Prize (winner, 2007): “A Storm and a Teacup”
Wildcare Nature Writing Prize (winner, 2005): “Days of Christmas”