Media release

Vale John Tranter

We wish to acknowledge the passing of John Tranter, one of Australia’s most celebrated poets.

We wish to acknowledge the passing of John Tranter, one of Australia’s most celebrated poets. He was also a critic, broadcaster and editor.

John published more than twenty collections of poetry and co-edited the Penguin Book of Modern Australian Poetry with Philip Mead (1991). Tranter’s most celebrated work, Under Berlin (1988), was awarded both the Kenneth Slessor Prize and the Grace Leven Prize for Poetry.

Tranter was a broadcaster for the ABC on various arts programs and founded Books and Writing with Jan Garrett.

An innovator keenly interested in technology, John founded Australian Poetry Library, and, in 1997, he established the international online journal, Jacket, which gave an international audience access to thousands of Australian poems. Now based at the University of Pennsylvania, Jacket continues to publish contemporary experimental poetry.

We acknowledge the many Traditional Custodians of Country throughout Australia and honour their Elders past and present.

We respect their deep enduring connection to their lands, waterways, and surrounding clan groups since time immemorial. We cherish the richness of First Nations peoples’ artistic and cultural expressions. We are privileged to gather on this Country and to share knowledge, culture and art, now and with future generations.

Art by Jordan Lovegrove