David Musgrave
Encyclopedia
David Musgrave is an Australian poet, novelist, publisher and critic. He is currently the publisher of Puncher & Wattmann
, an independent press which publishes Australian poetry and literary fiction. He is also treaurer of the Poets Union
Inc and has recently returned from a fact finding mission to West Wylong to discover the reason why everyone left Wylong and migrated west.
Musgrave was born in Sydney
and educated at Sydney University where in 1997 he received a PhD for his thesis on the topic of Menippean satire
. He worked for a number of years as a CIO in the Health Insurance industry. He currently lectures in creative writing at the University of Newcastle.
His first book, To Thalia (Five Islands Press), was published and commended in the 2004 Anne Elder Award
; it was followed by On Reflection (Interactive) in 2005 and Watermark (Picaro) in 2006. Several of his poems have won major awards in Australia.
He has published numerous articles on Australian literature
, including on Norman Lindsay
's The Magic Pudding and David Ireland
's The Unknown Industrial Prisoner. He has also written on The Black Dog and Depression (published in Tracking the Black Dog by the Black Dog Institute and published articles on Samuel Beckett
and the Ern Malley
hoax. His study on Menippean Satire in English since the Renaissance, 'Grotesque Anatomies', is forthcoming from Cambria Press (USA) and his novel 'Glissando: A Melodrama' was published by Sleepers Publishing (Melbourne) in 2010 and was shortlisted for the UTS Glenda Adams Award for New Writing in 2011; his poetry collection Phantom Limb was published by John Leonard Press in 2010 and was awarded the Grace Leven prize for Poetry. Two other collections are forthcoming: 'Concrete Tuesday' from Island Press (2011) and 'Mishearing' from Gorilla Books (2011).
Puncher & Wattmann
Puncher & Wattmann is an independent Australian publishing house founded by David Musgrave in 2005. It specialises in publishing Australian poetry and literary fiction. Launched by David Malouf, its first title, James Stinks by Nick Riemer was placed third in the Mary Gilmore Award in 2006...
, an independent press which publishes Australian poetry and literary fiction. He is also treaurer of the Poets Union
Poets Union
The Poets Union is a not-for-profit organisation representing Australian poets, founded in Melbourne in 1977, it is now Sydney based. Its aim is to advocate the role of poetry as a major art form in Australia. Every second year it presents the Australian Poetry Festival and the Union organises...
Inc and has recently returned from a fact finding mission to West Wylong to discover the reason why everyone left Wylong and migrated west.
Musgrave was born in Sydney
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
and educated at Sydney University where in 1997 he received a PhD for his thesis on the topic of Menippean satire
Menippean satire
The genre of Menippean satire is a form of satire, usually in prose, which has a length and structure similar to a novel and is characterized by attacking mental attitudes instead of specific individuals...
. He worked for a number of years as a CIO in the Health Insurance industry. He currently lectures in creative writing at the University of Newcastle.
His first book, To Thalia (Five Islands Press), was published and commended in the 2004 Anne Elder Award
Anne Elder Award
The Anne Elder Trust Fund Award for poetry is administered by the Victorian branch of the Fellowship of Australian Writers and is awarded annually, as the Anne Elder Award, for the best first book of poetry published in Australia. It was established in 1976 and currently has a prize of A$1000 for...
; it was followed by On Reflection (Interactive) in 2005 and Watermark (Picaro) in 2006. Several of his poems have won major awards in Australia.
He has published numerous articles on Australian literature
Australian literature
Australian literature is the written or literary work produced in the area or by the people of the Commonwealth of Australia and its preceding colonies. During its early western history, Australia was a collection of British colonies, therefore, its literary tradition begins with and is linked to...
, including on Norman Lindsay
Norman Lindsay
Norman Alfred William Lindsay was an Australian artist, sculptor, writer, editorial cartoonist, scale modeler, and boxer. He was born in Creswick, Victoria....
's The Magic Pudding and David Ireland
David Ireland (author)
David Neil Ireland AM is an Australian novelist.-Biography:David Ireland was born in Lakemba in New South Wales in 1927....
's The Unknown Industrial Prisoner. He has also written on The Black Dog and Depression (published in Tracking the Black Dog by the Black Dog Institute and published articles on Samuel Beckett
Samuel Beckett
Samuel Barclay Beckett was an Irish avant-garde novelist, playwright, theatre director, and poet. He wrote both in English and French. His work offers a bleak, tragicomic outlook on human nature, often coupled with black comedy and gallows humour.Beckett is widely regarded as among the most...
and the Ern Malley
Ern Malley
Ernest Lalor "Ern" Malley was a fictitious poet and the central figure in Australia's most celebrated literary hoax. The poet, and his entire body of work, were created in one day in 1944 by writers James McAuley and Harold Stewart as a hoax on Max Harris, Angry Penguins, the modernist magazine he...
hoax. His study on Menippean Satire in English since the Renaissance, 'Grotesque Anatomies', is forthcoming from Cambria Press (USA) and his novel 'Glissando: A Melodrama' was published by Sleepers Publishing (Melbourne) in 2010 and was shortlisted for the UTS Glenda Adams Award for New Writing in 2011; his poetry collection Phantom Limb was published by John Leonard Press in 2010 and was awarded the Grace Leven prize for Poetry. Two other collections are forthcoming: 'Concrete Tuesday' from Island Press (2011) and 'Mishearing' from Gorilla Books (2011).
Awards
- 1986 - Henry LawsonHenry LawsonHenry Lawson was an Australian writer and poet. Along with his contemporary Banjo Paterson, Lawson is among the best-known Australian poets and fiction writers of the colonial period and is often called Australia's "greatest writer"...
Prize for Poetry for the poem Afternoon Ambience - 1987 - Henry Lawson Prize for Poetry for the poem Budapest
- 1987 - Sydney University Prize for English Verse for the poem What I did on Sunday
- 1994 - Sidney NolanSidney NolanSir Sidney Robert Nolan OM, AC was one of Australia's best-known painters and printmakers.-Early life:Nolan was born in Carlton, a suburb of Melbourne, on 22 April 1917. He was the eldest of four children. His family later moved to St Kilda. Nolan attended the Brighton Road State School and...
Gallery Poetry Prize for the poem Glenrowan - 2001 - Broadway Poetry Prize for the poem Lagoon
- 2003 - Bruce Dawe National Poetry PrizeBruce Dawe National Poetry PrizeThe Bruce Dawe National Poetry Prize is an annual poetry prize endowed by Australian poet Bruce Dawe in 1999. It is awarded to "an original, unpublished poem not exceeding 50 lines" by an Australian citizen or resident. The award comes with a $1500 cash prize....
for the poem Minneapolis - 2004 - Shortlisted for the Anne Elder AwardAnne Elder AwardThe Anne Elder Trust Fund Award for poetry is administered by the Victorian branch of the Fellowship of Australian Writers and is awarded annually, as the Anne Elder Award, for the best first book of poetry published in Australia. It was established in 1976 and currently has a prize of A$1000 for...
for To Thalia - 2006 - Highly commended in the Newcastle Poetry PrizeNewcastle Poetry PrizeThe Newcastle Poetry Prize is an annual Australian award for poetry. It was established in 1981 as the Mattara Poetry Prize.The Prize began from humble beginnings in September 1980, when Peter Goldman stood in the middle of Civic Park during the Mattara Festival and handed out an anthology of...
for the sequence Open Water - 2008 - The Josephine Ulrick Poetry Prize for the poem Grace
- 2008 - Newcastle Poetry PrizeNewcastle Poetry PrizeThe Newcastle Poetry Prize is an annual Australian award for poetry. It was established in 1981 as the Mattara Poetry Prize.The Prize began from humble beginnings in September 1980, when Peter Goldman stood in the middle of Civic Park during the Mattara Festival and handed out an anthology of...
for the poem The Baby Boomers - 2008 - Alec Bolton prize for the unpublished manuscript Phantom Limb
- 2010 - Grace Leven Prize for Poetry for Phantom Limb