Bio & Awards

Bibliography

 

Novels

  • The Fifth Season (Transit Lounge, 2020)
  • The Returns (Transit Lounge, 2019, 2020)
  • Waiting (Puncher & Wattmann, 2016, 2017)
  • Toccata & Rain (Fremantle Arts Centre Press, 2004)
  • Playback (Fremantle Arts Centre Press, 1991, 2003)

Poetry

  • Alterworld (Puncher & Wattmann, 2015)
  • Between Yes and No (Flying Island Books, 2014)
  • Keeping Carter (Puncher & Wattmann, 2012)
  • The Keeper of Fish (Puncher & Wattmann, 2011)
  • Keepers (Puncher & Wattmann, 2010)
  • The Family Fig Trees (Picaro Press, chapbook, 2007)
  • The Well Mouth (Fremantle Arts Centre Press, 2005, 2006, 2008, Puncher & Wattmann, 2012)
  • A Cretive Life (Fremantle Arts Centre Press, 2001)
  • New and Selected Poems (Fremantle Arts Centre Press, 1998)
  • The Rome Air Naked (Penguin, 1996)
  • Feeding the Ghost (Penguin, 1993)
  • Tremors (National Library of Australia, Pamphlet series, 1992)
  • Barbecue of the Primitives (University of Queensland Press, 1989)
  • Sky Poems (Fremantle Arts Centre Press, 1987, 1993)
  • The Projectionist: a sequence (Fremantle Arts Centre Press, 1983)
  • The Silent Piano (Fremantle Arts Centre Press, 1980)

Awards

 

Commonwealth Poetry Prize (British Airways / Commonwealth Institute London) for Overall Best Book of Poetry in the British Commonwealth in 1987 – Sky Poems
Commonwealth Poetry Prize (as above) for Best First Book in 1981 – The Silent Piano
WA Literary Award for Poetry (Now Premiers Prize for Poetry) in 1984 – The Projectionist
WA Literary Award for Poetry (Now Premiers Prize for Poetry) in 1987 – Sky Poems
WA Premiers Prize for Fiction in 1992 – Playback
South Australian Literary Award for Poetry in 1984 – official second prize– The Projectionist
The Age Book of the Year in 1987 – only poetry book shortlisted – Sky Poems
The Barbara Ramsden Award in 1987 – Highly Commended – Sky Poems
Anne Elder Prize for Best First Book of Poetry – second prize – The Silent Piano
Sydney Morning Herald Best Books of the Year 2005 – The Well Mouth
Adelaide Review Best Books of the Year 2006 – The Well Mouth

Miles Franklin Award for Literature 2017 – Shortlisted – Waiting
Prime Minister’s Award for Literature 2017 – Finalist – Waiting
Victorian Premier’s Prize 2016 – Shortlisted – Waiting

Miles Franklin Award for Literature 2020 – Shortlisted – The Returns
Queensland Premier’s Prize 2020 – Shortlisted – The Returns

is for Miles Franklin Award for Literature 2021 – Longlisted – The Fifth Season

Other Shortlisting: Victorian Premiers Prize, NBC Banjo Awards, John Bray (SA) Poetry Prize, Blake Poetry Prize, Mattara Poetry Prize

In 2003 the Christopher Brennan Award went to Philip Salom.

One of the most gratifying of all awards, this one reminds us of the great Christopher Brennan and acknowledges one poet annually for their entire body of work up to that point. The wording indicates that it is a lifetime award for poetry ” of sustained quality and distinction”. What is also pleasing about receiving the award is knowing it has been awarded precisely as stated.

In 2021 the Philip Salom won the Outstanding Achievement Award of the 4th Boao International Poetry Award.

This major award is for lifetime achievements in Poetry. The award ceremony will be held at Boao Asian Forum, Hainan, China in November 2021.

Newcastle Poetry Prize for “Preservation: Things in Glass”, later published in A Cretive Life.
Newcastle Poetry Prize for “Elegy For My Father”, later published in New and Selected Poems.
Australia – New Zealand Literary Exchange Fellowship
– a month-long reading and speaking tour of the major cities of New Zealand
Senior Fellowships and Grants from the Australia Council – Literature
Inaugural Winner of BR Whiting Residency in Rome
Percival Serle Bequest for Toccata, best MA in the English Department of Melbourne University