John Blight



John Blight (born 1913-1995) was an Australian poet. The name Blight is of Cornish origin.

Life
Born in Unley, South Australia on 30 July 1913, Blight was educated at Brisbane State High School. During the Great Depression in Australia he tramped the Queensland coast looking for work. In 1939 he became an accountant in Bundaberg, Queensland, and after World War II a part-owner of timber mills in the Gympie region. He took up full-time writing in 1973.

Recognition
John Blight has received numerous awards, including the Dame Mary Gilmore Medal, Grace Leven Prize for Poetry, The Patrick White Literary Award and the Christopher Brennan Award. He died in 1995.

Publications

 * The Old Pianist: Poems (1945)
 * The Two Suns Met (1954)
 * A Beachcomber's Diary (1964)
 * My Beachcombing Days : Ninety Sea Sonnets (1968)
 * Hart : Poems (1975)
 * Selected Poems 1939-1975 (1976)
 * Pageantry for a Lost Empire (1978)
 * The New City Poems (1980)
 * Holiday Sea Sonnets (1985)
 * Selected Poems 1939-1990 (1992)