Stephen Edgar

Stephen Edgar (born 1951) is a contemporary Australian poet, editor and indexer.

Life
Edgar was born in Sydney in 1951 where he attended Sydney Technical High School. Between 1971 and 1974 he lived in London and worked as a library assistant in the London Borough of Lambeth. On returning to Australia, he moved to Hobart, Tasmania, where he read English and Classics at the University of Tasmania, receiving a BA in 1978 and a Graduate Diploma in Librarianship in 1985.

His first published poetry appeared in 1979 in the Tasmanian literary quarterly Island (originally The Tasmanian Review). From 1986 to the present he has been subeditor of Island and was poetry editor between 1989 and 1994. He is the author of seven books of poetry.

As well as extensive publication of his verse in print media, Stephen Edgar has published poetry in online poetry magazines such as Snorkel, The Poetry Foundation, The Chimaera, and The Flea.

In 2005 he returned to Sydney. He is married to Australian poet Judith Beveridge.

Writing
As poet Kevin Hart has observed, Edgar “is distinctive for a firm commitment to closed forms and for showing considerable panache in handling them”.

Other critical material on Stephen Edgar includes a close reading by Clive James of Edgar's 'Man on the Moon' in the Poetry Foundation's online magazine.

Awards

 * 1984 — Harri Jones Memorial Prize for Poetry
 * 2003 — Grace Leven Prize for Poetry and William Baylebridge Memorial Prize (for his fifth book Lost in the Foreground)
 * 2005 — Australian Book Review Poetry Prize (for his poem “Man on the Moon”)
 * 2006 — Philip Hodgins Memorial Medal for an outstanding contribution to Australian literature, at the Mildura Writers’ Festival.
 * 2010 — William Baylebridge Memorial Prize (for History of the Day)

Publications

 * Queuing for the Mudd Club (Hobart, Twelvetrees Publishing Company, 1985, ISBN 0-9590082-0-9)
 * Ancient Music (Sydney, Angus and Robertson, 1988, ISBN 0-207-15698-0)
 * Corrupted Treasures (Melbourne, William Heinemann Australia, 1995, ISBN 0-85561-545-1)
 * Where the Trees Were (Canberra, Indigo/Ginninderra Press, 1999, ISBN 1-74027-013-4)
 * Lost in the Foreground (Sydney, Duffy and Snellgrove, 2003, ISBN 1-876631-64-3; reprinted Warners Bay, Picaro Press, 2008, ISBN 978-1-920957-53-7)
 * Other Summers (Melbourne, Black Pepper publishing, 2006, ISBN 1-876044-54-3)
 * Photography for Beginners (Compact Disc, Spit Junction, River Road Press, 2007, ISBN 978-0-9804148-2-0)
 * History of the Day (Melbourne, Black Pepper publishing, 2009, ISBN 978-1-876044-62-6)