Bücher von John Egan

John Egan is a Sydney poet who also lives on the south coast of NSW. He was a high-school teacher of English for twenty-two years, Second Master of Bankstown Grammar School for nine years and later taught English as a foreign language and university preparation courses at the University of NSW, Wollongong University College and Newcastle University. For some years he also taught English and business communication at JDW Business College. His first chapbook was published by the Melbourne Poets Union and Ginninderra Press have published five collections, a verse novel, six collaborations with other poets and a number of chapbooks. He considers himself a poet of memory and the sea, but also writes of the natural world, the urban environment, social issues and Australian history.

In 1755, the Portuguese capital, Lisbon, was almost totally destroyed by an earthquake and the resulting tsunamis, and by fire. Perhaps 90,000 people died and 85% of buildings were shattered, including the Royal Ribeiro Palace, home to the archives of all Portuguese exploration in and around the East Indies, including the voyages of Vasco da Gama. All records were lost. Did the Portuguese send voyages of exploration, secretly, across the treaty line of Tordesillas, that divided the Spanish and Portuguese hemispheres? Did they explore and map the east coast of Australia 250 years before Cook's first voyage? Was the Mahogany Ship, first sighted in 1836, half-buried in sand dunes in the south-east of Victoria, the wreck of a Portuguese caravel? Who built the solid stone foundations of a structure on the south coast of NSW, and who lost the archaic set of keys unearthed near Geelong in 1847? Where did Mendonça's expedition of 1521 sail and when, if ever, did it return? If such a voyage ever occurred, was it like this?

';It is a gift to take time to notice, and another to bring one's observations into creative verse. John Egan does both with craft and conciseness. He peacefully explores his world in all its potential and limitations. It is this note of quiet, unruffled integrity that makes his poetry a pleasant reading experience. We are fortunate to have the strength of his imagery to bring our Australian urban landscapes alive. We look about us anew as a result of John's penmanship.' Colleen Keating';In this new collection, John Egan demonstrates again his tender perception coupled with a poet's sensibility and an appreciation of the contradictions of the human condition. Whether responding to his favoured urban streetscapes or to the contrasts and spectacle of the natural world, John brings his trademark use of simile, and the inspiration of an educator, to craft fine and evocative poems. A joy for the reader.' David Atkinson';John Egan is a poet of brilliant images. We gasp with delighted recognition when he takes us to a familiar landscape, and know it more deeply because, by giving us words we could not have found for ourselves, he shows us the way to a new experience.' Robin Hillard, Polestar Writers Journal