Les Wicks



Les Wicks (born 15 June 1955) is an Australian poet, publisher and editor. He has a long list of achievements in writing, publishing and broadcasting. This includes the publication of ten books of poetry.

Life
Wicks grew up in western suburbs Sydney. Les played in the band Iron Mouth. The Vietnam war savagely divided his family and taught him early activism. By 17 he had his first poem accepted and was school organiser for the secondary school students' strike. He did a history degree over some years at (Macquarie University) as well as a variety of unskilled and semi-skilled jobs while living in Sydney and London. In the late 70s he embarked on his first publishing exercise – Meuse publications (with Bill Farrow) which was a high water mark in Australian poetry publishing with its cutting edge mix of text and graphics. He helped set up the Poets Union in NSW. From the 1980s he worked as a union industrial advocate for a number of Unions after obtaining a graduate diploma in Industrial Law from the University of Sydney.


 * 1993 to date director of Island Press.
 * 1992-1999 Artransit Project Meuse Press.


 * 1984-1997 to Senior Industrial Officer Musicians Union & Media Entertainment & Arts Alliance.
 * 1990-93 Sec. NSW ALP Communications & Leisure Policy Committee. –


 * Part of Poets Union (NSW) original steering committee, Jnt Sec./Treas. (1979–80), Federal Secretary 1983.

He has been a guest at most of Australia's literary festivals, toured widely and been published in over 250 different newspapers, anthologies and magazines across fifteen countries in nine languages. During September/October 2006, Les Wicks was a guest of the Festival International de la Poesie in Quebec, Canada. In 2011 he was the 1st Australian guest at the International Literary Festival, Lviv, Ukraine.

Shadows of the Read was published in 2011 (Krok) featuring work in both English & Ukrainian. His latest title is Barking Wings (PressPress, 2012).

Other projects include publishing and editing poetry outreach like Artransit which put poetry and art into Sydney & Newcastle (NSW) buses and Heritage Light which saw a poem published on the surface of the Parramatta River. E-books have explored Sydney beaches & Broken Hill through words & photography. In association with Krok Publishing the first anthology of contemporary Ukrainian & Australian poets in English & Ukrainian was published - AU/UA: Contemporary Poetry of Ukraine and Australia. He runs a workshop program across Australia called Plan to Be Published.

Writing
Stylistically, he spans both a vernacular performance poetry and more linguistically dense, often dark explorations. He is hard hitting and humorous.

His fifth book of poems, The Ways of Waves (Sidewalk, 2000) celebrates the Australian summer. Number six, Appetites of Light (PressPress, 2002), is an exploration of the qualities of light, while the seventh takes readers to "peopled landscapes"... Stories of the Feet (Five Islands, 2004). The Ambrosiacs (Island, 2009) concerns “endings”- an elegy - from ecology under stress to the loss of close friends. Wicks explores a sequence of endpoints: spiritual exploration, suburbia, rural escapes and travel...all with his typical raw honesty, humour and rage. A startling, and ultimately affirming picture of generations and lives. Joanne Burns writes of "the Ambrosiacs" "…intense, quite relentless, often dark and pessimistic. But this of course is not the whole story, for within these pages are striking moments of grace, awareness, acceptance, restitution…". Much of the work in later books features what Wicks describes as "this waterwall, a cascade". Through building layers of proposition, assertion, voice & imagery a broader picture is created.

Awards

 * Nominated 	       - 1980 Pushcart Press: Best of the Little Presses (US)
 * Shortlisted           - 2011 War Poetry Competition, Newcastle Poetry Prize 1999
 * Highly Commended      - 2007 Broken Hill Poetry Competition, 2005 Vera Newsom Poetry Award, 1998 Poetry Book Club of Australia
 * Winner                - 1997 Lake Pedder Competition, 1984 University of Sydney Union Literary Competition
 * Judge: 2011, 2008 chair NSW Premier’s (Kenneth Slessor) Poetry Prize, 2001 judge Slessor & chair Community Affairs Commission Prize.The Blake Poetry Prize 2010, 2010 Tom Collins Poetry Prize, 2001, 2001 Leichhardt Performance Poetry,1995-1999 Sports/Olympic Poetry Competition

Poetry

 *  The Vanguard Sleeps In  (Glandular, 1981)
 * Cannibals (Rochford St, 1985)
 * Tickle  (Island Press (Australia), 1993)
 * Nitty Gritty (Five Islands, 1997)
 * The Ways of Waves (Sidewalk, 2000)
 * Appetites of Light (Presspress, 2002)
 * Stories of the Feet (Five Islands, 2004)
 * The Ambrosiacs  (Island Press (Australia), 2009)
 * Shadows of the Read  (Krok, 2011), 2011)
 * Barking Wings  (PressPress, 2012),

Edited or organised

 * 1977-1981 Meuse Press Magazine, supplements & anthologies.
 * 1985 Musicians Union Band Guide. 1978.
 * 1999-2000 editor of Hobo.
 * 1998-2003 Written in Sand Project Meuse Press.
 * 2002 Heritage Light including publishing a poem on the surface of a river.
 * 2000-2008 co-organiser Poets on Wheels.
 * 2010 "from this Broken Hill" Meuse Press
 * Guide to Sydney Beaches Meuse Press, 2009.
 * 2011 "AU/UA: Contemporary Poetry of Ukraine and Australia" (Krok, 2011) Meuse Press