Link to the Show / Show Notes"I think I like to write because I discover what I think about things that way. I wouldn’t understand my own experience if I didn’t write about it."
Robert Gray began writing poems while working as a journalist and, later worked in various jobs which included teaching and as a reviewer for the ABC and the Sydney Morning Herald. The recipient of numerous grants and Gray taught at various universities in Australia and at Tokyo’s Meiji University. He is regarded as an outstanding landscape poet and, alongside Les Murray, is one of the most significant Australian poets. His work has been awarded all of the most important Australian literary prizes.
Recently Gray’s poems were translated into German by the poet, Joachim Sartorius, for the Thomas Reche Verlag. In this week’s Inspired minds, Robert Gray recites one of his poems and talks to Breandáin O’Shea about his inspiration for poetry, his preference for a simile over a metaphor and the difficulties of writing poems for a living.
Interview:Breandáin O'Shea/RobertGray