Well-versed Australian poet to read original works

Liza Darwin Assistant Arts Editor

Prominent Australian poet Les Murray will host a reading of his works on Tuesday, March 6. His poetry, described by The New Yorker as “working-class lyricism,” has received worldwide acclaim and awards, including the Grace Leven Prize (1980, 1990) and the Queen’s Gold Award for Poetry, presented by Queen Elizabeth II (1999). Murray comes to the United States from Australia as a guest presenter at the annual conference of the Associated Writing Programs in Atlanta, Ga.

Murray’s reading at Vassar, sponsored by the English Department and the Office of the Dean of Faculty, will be his only public reading on the East Coast. According to Professor of English Paul Kane, Dean of Faculty Ron Sharp admires Murray’s work, and has been central in planning the visit.

Kane said that the Departments chose Murray to speak for two reasons. “First, we heard he would be in the U.S., where he rarely visits, so it made sense to invite him at a time when he was already in the country,” said Kane. “Second, he’s one of the most inventive and original poets writing today, by turns profound, humorous, insightful and compassionate, with a truly remarkable verbal facility.”

Murray grew up in the remote village of Nabiac on New South Wales. He was largely self-educated until he attended Sydney University, where he studied modern languages. Although he later dropped out of classes, rumor has it that he has read most of the books in the University library. He worked in the translation unit at Australian National University from 1963 until 1971, until he decided to try to make a living with literature.

According to lesmurray.org, the best of Murray’s poetry includes The Vernacular Republic: Poems 1961-1981 (1982) and two subsequent collections, The Daylight Moon (1987) and Dog Fox Field (1990). The Boys Who Stole the Funeral, first published in 1980, is largely considered Murray’s most ambitious work. The novel-sequence is composed of 140 sonnets, each one varying in rhyme and meter. It is the story of Kevin Stace Forbutt and Cameron Reeby, who kidnap the body of their friend in order to give him a proper funeral in the outback, his home. The mission’s consequences are greater than they expected. The police finally find the two men, leading to a tragic showdown. The novel illustrates Murray’s belief that Australians should share the aboriginal respect of the environment. Murray also uses his writing to define what it means to be an Australian in cultural and spiritual terms.

Kane encouraged students to take advantage of the opportunity to hear this “remarkable” writer. “If there was an All-Star Ballot for poets, the way there is in baseball, Murray would be on the team every year,” Kane said. “He hits a lot of home runs.”

Murray will read in Sanders Hall 212 at 6 p.m.