Brook Emery

Last updated

Brook Emery
Born
Nigel Westbrook Emery

(1949-07-24) 24 July 1949 (age 76)
St. Margaret's Maternity Hospital, Darlinghurst, NSW
EducationB.A. University of Sydney
Dip.Ed. University of Sydney
M.A. University of Sydney
Ph.D. University of Newcastle
GenrePoetry
Notable works and dug my fingers in the sand
Misplaced Heart
At a Slight Angle
Uncommon Light
Collusion
Have Been and Are
Sea Scale
SpouseSusan Jean Dixon (m.1972)
Children3

Brook Emery (born 24 July 1949) is an Australian poet, educator, and surf lifesaver. Described by Martin Duwell as "a major poet", [1] Emery has been the New South Wales editor of Blue Dog, the Journal of the Australian Poetry Centre. [2] Along with Peter Minter, David Brooks, and Martin Harrison he was one of the founders of the Sydney Poetry Network. [3] He has chaired the Australian Poetry Festival and the Poets Union, [2] and is a mentor at the Australian Society of Authors. [4]

Contents

Family

The son of Englishman Derek John Edward Emery (1914-1975) [5] [6] [a] and his Australian wife, Cecil Audrey "Pat" Westbrook (1921-1965), [7] [8] [9] [10] Nigel Westbrook Emery, known as "Brook", was born at St. Margaret's Maternity Hospital, Darlinghurst, Sydney, New South Wales on 24 July 1949. [11] His father, Derek Emery, was a prominent member of the Dajonian Repertory Society from 1936 to 1940. [12] [13] [14] [15]

Brook had two siblings: a younger brother, Curtis Leigh Emery, known as "Leigh", [16] and a younger sister, Stephanie Gail Emery, later Stephanie Gail Rumball. He married Susan Jean Dixon, also a teacher, at Grafton, New South Wales in 1972; [17] they had three children.

Education

Secondary

Emery was a talented student; and, having won a New South Wales Government Bursary to commence his secondary studies in 1962 at Vaucluse High School, [18] [19] he not only went on to pass in all five of his H.S.C. subjects in 1967 (the first year of the Higher School Certificate in New South Wales), [20] but was also listed in the "Order of Merit" for his "meritorious performance in [his] attainment of passes at first level in the Higher School Certificate examination" in both English and Modern History. [21]

Tertiary: undergraduate

Emery attended the University of Sydney from 1968 to 1971, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) [22] and a Diploma of Education (Dip.Ed.) [23] in 1972.

Tertiary: postgraduate

He returned to study in the 1980s, graduating with a Master of Arts (M.A.) from the University of Sydney in 1983; [24] and then, later, he went on to study with the School of Language and Media at the University of Newcastle, graduating Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) on 19 April 2004. [25]

Surf lifesaver

External Media
Images
Searchtool.svg A Rescue and Resuscitation competition team of six, from Palm Beach Surf Life Saving Club, Queensland, with their life saving reel (1946), Wikimedia.
Searchtool.svg A Rescue and Resuscitation competition team of six, from Palm Beach Surf Life Saving Club, Queensland, waiting for the starting gun (1946), Wikimedia.
Searchtool.svg Four of the six-man Rescue and Resuscitation competition team, from Palm Beach Surf Life Saving Club, Queensland, bringing their "patient" to the beach. The sixth man is on the beach still operating the life saving reel that is connected to the belt-man (c.1950), Wikimedia.
Audio
Nuvola apps arts.svg "Physical", poem read by Brook Emery, The Poetry Archive.
Nuvola apps arts.svg "The Mind is a Body Breathing In Unconsciously", poem read by Brook Emery, The Poetry Archive.
Nuvola apps arts.svg "Very like a whale", poem read by Brook Emery, The Poetry Archive.
Nuvola apps arts.svg "Sunday: '(Everything can be) transformed", poem read by Brook Emery, The Poetry Archive.
Video
Nuvola apps kaboodle.svg Art After Hours: "Brook Emery, acclaimed Australian poet", Talk by Brook Emery in association with The poetry of drawing: Pre-Raphaelite designs, studies and watercolours, Art Gallery of New South Wales, 13 July 2011.
Nuvola apps kaboodle.svg "A Life in Poetry: Brook Emery and Ron Pretty in conversation", presented by Poetry Sydney, at the Brett Whitley Studio of the Art Gallery of New South Wales, on 4 November 2018.

When, aged 13, he swam for Vaucluse High School in the Combined Eastern Suburbs High Schools Swimming Carnival. Swimming in three different events on the same day, and competing in the 14 Years category, he came third in the 55 yards Butterfly, second in the 55 yards Breaststroke, and second in the longest distance contested in that age division, the 220 yards Freestyle. [26]

Both Emery brothers were accomplished surf swimmers: [27] for instance, in March 1968, with Brook as "patient", and Leigh as "belt-man", the Emery brothers (swimming for Bondi Surf Bathers' Life Saving Club) won the swimming section of the senior Rescue & Resuscitation (R & R), [b] at the State Surfing championships, Kingscliff Beach, New South Wales. [28] Their team won the "drill" section of the competition, the next day. [29]

On 22 February 1969, a day when many of Sydney's beaches were closed because of "dangerous rips and high seas", Brook made a real-life belt rescue of a man who had been "carried 100 yards to sea by a strong rip" at Bondi Beach. [30] In 1972, at the age of 22, he was the captain of the Bondi Club. [31] He left Bondi in early 1973, because he had been posted to Grafton in the far north-east of New South Wales, as a teacher. [32]

Educator

Following his graduation at Sydney University he served for 25 years as a specialist English and History teacher at several NSW high schools: [33] Grafton High School, Sydney Boys High School, Maroubra Bay High School, and Dover Heights High School.

Poet

When interviewed in 2013, [33] Emery not only observed that "much of my writing is about the sea", but also that "I've been a surfer all my life and both my books [viz., and dug my fingers in the sand (2000), and Misplaced Heart (2003)] are full of the sea and the surf"; and, in 2016, [34] he stressed that, as a surfer, he was "a body surfer rather than a boardrider".

Poems

His first-ever published poem, "Tapping the Market", appeared in Education, the Journal of the New South Wales Teachers Federation in 1993. [35] His poem, "Crossing the Border", which appeared in Southerly in 1994, was the first of his poems to be published in a Literary journal. [36] His poem, "Pinball Rider", which appeared in Spectrum, the Saturday Supplement to The Sydney Morning Herald , in 1997, was the first of his poems to be published in a Newspaper. [37]

Publications

In addition to Education, Southerly, and Spectrum, his poems have been published in a wide range of publications. [38]

Anthologies

His poems have also been included in a number of anthologies, [38] such as: The Second Worst Thing (1998); [39] The Argument from Desire (1999); [40] New Music (2001); [41] Ten Years Live (2001); [42] The Opening of Borders (2001); [43] Time's Collision with the Tongue (2001); [44] Open Boat, Barbed Wire Sky (2003); [45] Reunion (2003); [46] Suburbs of the Mind (2004); [47] The Honey Fills the Cone (2006); [48] The Road South (2007); [49] The Best Australian Poetry 2008 (2008); [50] 60 Classic Australian Poems (2009); [51] Guide to Sydney Beaches (2009); [52] The Puncher & Wattmann Anthology of Australian Poetry (2009); [53] The Best Australian Poems 2010 (2010); [54] The Best Australian Poems 2011 (2011); [55] The Best Australian Poems 2014 (2014); [56] Falling and Flying: Poems on Ageing (2015); [57] Prayers of a Secular World (2015); [58] The Best Australian Poems 2015 (2015); [59] and Writing to the Wire (2016), [60] etc.

Collected works

Six collections of his work have been published: and dug my fingers in the sand , in 2000; [c] Misplaced Heart, in 2003; At a Slight Angle , in 2006; Uncommon Light, in 2007; Collusion, in 2012; Have Been and Are, in 2016; and Sea Scale , in 2022.

Judge

In 2013, along with the Australian poet and 2004 C.J. Dennis Prize for Poetry and Judith Wright Calanthe Award winner Judith Beveridge, the psychiatrist and poet Jennifer Harrison, and the British poet and 2009 T. S. Eliot Prize winner Philip Gross, as head judge, Emery was appointed to the four-member judging panel for the prestigious (2014) inaugural $15,000 University of Canberra Vice-Chancellor's Poetry Prize. [61] [62] He was appointed judge of the Shoalhaven Literary Award for Poetry 2016. [63]

Works

Dissertations

  • 1983: Emery, Nigel Westbrook, The Road Novels of Jack Kerouac, M.A. Dissertation, University of Sydney. (A physical copy of the dissertation is held in the Rare Books & Special Collections division of University of Sydney's Fisher Library.)
  • 2003: Emery, Brook, King Lear's Clothes: Addressing the Line in Twentieth Century Poetry, Ph.D. Dissertation, School of Language and Media, University of Newcastle. (A physical copy of the dissertation is held in the Collections division of University of Newcastle's Auchmuty Library.)

Articles

  • 1993: Verse: "Tapping the Market", Education: Journal of the New South Wales Public School Teachers Federation, Vol.74, No.11, (23 August 1993), p. 19.
  • 1994: "The Fed Rep's Lament" (a poem), Education: Journal of the New South Wales Public School Teachers Federation, Vol.75, No.1, (7 February 1994), p. 8.
  • 1994: "Excellent Comprehensives", Education: Journal of the New South Wales Public School Teachers Federation, Vol.75, No.1, (7 February 1994), pp. 15-16.
  • 2016: "Made it his mission to make Australian poetry visible": Ron Pretty October 16, 1940-June 30, 2023 (Obituary), The Sydney Morning Herald, 9 August 2023.

Essays

  • 2003: "Reviewing", pp. 106-113 in Ron Pretty (ed.), Practical Poetics, Wollongong, NSW: Five Islands Press, 2003. ISBN   978-0-8641-8741-3
  • 2005: "As Natural as Football", Five Bells, Vol.12, No.1, (December 2005), pp.  24-27.
  • 2009: "Fiction and Prose: Thin Partitions do their Bounds Divide", Five Bells, Vol.16, No.4, (September 2009), pp. 36-40.
  • 2010: "An Argument about Measure: Marking and Making the Line", Five Bells, Vol.17, Nos.1-2, (December 2010), pp. 127-137.
  • 2014: "Not So Much a Thought: Poetry and Philosophy", Axon: Creative Explorations, Vol.4, No.1, July 2014.
  • 2016: "Adapted for Land—A Lungfish writes the Sea", Plumwood Mountain Journal, Vol.3, No.1, February 2016.
  • 2020: "Voltage Across a Membrane", Axon: Creative Explorations, Vol.10, No.2, December 2020.

Interviews

Collections

Editor

  • 2010: Emery, Brook (ed.) (with Victoria Haritos), Science Made Marvelous Series: Earthly Matters: Biology and Geology Poems, Potts Point NSW: The Poets Union Inc. [72] ISBN   978-0-9805-4202-8
  • 2010: Emery, Brook (ed.) (with Victoria Haritos), Science Made Marvelous Series: Law and Impulse: Maths and Chemistry Poems, Potts Point NSW: The Poets Union Inc. [73] ISBN   978-0-9805-4201-1
  • 2010: Emery, Brook (ed.) (with John L. Sheppard and Victoria Haritos), Science Made Marvelous Series: Holding Patterns: Physics and Engineering Poems, Potts Point NSW: The Poets Union Inc. [74] ISBN   978-0-9578-5645-5
  • 2015: Emery, Brook (ed.) (with Sarah Holland-Batt), Australian Poetry Anthology, Volume 4, Melbourne, Vic: Australian Poetry Ltd. ISSN   2204-3616
  • 2018: Emery, Brook (ed.), Naming the Particulars, Parramatta, NSW: Youngstreet Poets. [75] ISBN   978-1-6446-7538-0

Awards and nominations

Awards

Notes

  1. ↑ "My dad died when I was twenty-five/(I wasn't there; my mum had died before)./The heart attack that killed him/left him little time to age, or me to fret./Life just stopped on that sudden note." — "With My Father-in-Law", and dug my fingers in the sand (2000), p.41.
  2. ↑ Rescue & Resuscitation (R & R) was a challenging competition involving a team of six, within which a rescue was simulated, with the designated "patient" (maybe 100 metres out to sea) and a "belt-man" — wearing a harness connected to a life saving reel operated by another of the team — and the remaining three in charge of the playing out the (cotton coated in beeswax) line as the rescuer ran from the beach, swam out to the "patient" and, with the assistance of the team-mates' line-pulling assistance, returning the "patient" to the shore (i.e., the "Rescue"). Then, with the "patient" lying on the beach, "Resuscitation" was simulated (see: for instance, "Surf Life Saving Reels", Pittwater Online News, No.77, (23-29 September 2012).).
  3. ↑ "To get past big waves, swim underneath them ... In open water races competitive swimmers will hold the sea floor, digging their fingers into the sand and using this handhold to propel themselves forward underwater, letting the wave pass overhead. Holding on to the sea floor stabilises your position ... " (Kate Rew, "How to Swim under and through Waves", p.20 in Rew, Kate (2022), The Outdoor Swimmer's Handbook: Collected Wisdom on the Art, Sport and Science of Outdoor Swimming, Random House UK. ISBN   978-1-8460-4728-2)

See also

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Duwell, Martin (2022), "Brook Emery: Sea Scale: New and Selected Poems, Waratah, NSW: Puncher and Wattmann, 2022, 291pp.", Australian Poetry Review, 1 June 2022.
  2. 1 2 Brook Emery at AustLit
  3. ↑ Sydney Poetry Network at AustLit
  4. ↑ PF.1.
  5. ↑ Derek Emery served overseas in the Second AIF (see: his father's Service Record and Nominal Roll details, and Brook's poem, "My Father's Eyes", Westerly, Vol.44, No.3, (Spring 1999), pp.  40-41.).
  6. ↑ He died at Dural, New South Wales on 14 August 1975 (Births, Deaths and Marriages New South Wales Deaths Registration no.22321/1975).
  7. ↑ Births: Westbrooke (sic), The Sydney Morning Herald, (Saturday, 26 February 1921), p. 12.
  8. ↑ Engagements: Emery-Westbrook, The Sydney Morning Herald, (Saturday, 4 December 1943), p. 180.
  9. ↑ They were married at Woollahra, New South Wales on 24 April 1947 (Births, Deaths and Marriages New South Wales Marriages Registration no.14391/1947).
  10. ↑ Deaths: Emery, The Sydney Morning Herald, (Thursday, 16 December 1965), p. 24.
  11. ↑ Births: Emery, The Sydney Morning Herald, (Saturday, 30 July 1949), p. 30.
  12. ↑ "Dajonian Repertory Society", The Sydney Morning Herald, (Saturday, 25 January 1936), p. 12.
  13. ↑ "Honours Easy", The (Sydney) Sun, Thursday, 30 January 1936), p. 36.
  14. ↑ "Street Scene", The Sydney Morning Herald, (Saturday, 3 June 1939), p. 9.
  15. ↑ "Plans Comedy Year", ", The (Sydney) Daily News, (Saturday, 6 April 1940), p. 6., and "Members of the cast of Baby Cyclone (photograph)", The (Sydney) Daily News, (Saturday, 6 April 1940), p. 6.
  16. ↑ Births: Emery, The Sydney Morning Herald, (Wednesday, 25 July 1951), p. 32.
  17. ↑ Births, Deaths and Marriages New South Wales Marriages Registration no.63291/1972).
  18. ↑ SMH.1.
  19. ↑ Emery makes special mention of the Vaucluse High School's motto Lumen Scientiae ('The light of knowledge') in his poem, "Self Portrait: Provisional Sketch" (Sea Scale: New & Selected Poems, pp. 15-22, at p. 15).
  20. ↑ SMH.3.
  21. ↑ TCT.1.
  22. ↑ UoS.1, p. 32.
  23. ↑ UoS.1, p. 53.
  24. ↑ UoS.2, p. 27.
  25. ↑ UoN.2, p. 36.
  26. ↑ SMH.2.
  27. ↑ Leigh was a member of the Australian Surf Lifesaving Team for three years: 1970—1972 (BSB.1, p. 61).
  28. ↑ TSH.1.
  29. ↑ SMH.4.
  30. ↑ TSH.2.
  31. ↑ Fox (1972), p. 77.
  32. ↑ Mossop (1973).
  33. 1 2 UoN.1.
  34. ↑ "Adapted for Land" (2016).
  35. ↑ Verse: "Tapping the Market", Education: Journal of the New South Wales Public School Teachers Federation, Vol.74, No.11, (23 August 1993), p. 19.
  36. ↑ Emery, Brook (1994), "Crossing the Border", Southerly, Vol.54, No.4, (December 1994), p. 77.
  37. ↑ Emery, Brook (1997), "Pinball Rider", Spectrum (supplement to the Sydney Morning Herald), (Saturday, 9 August 1997), p. 10.
  38. 1 2 For extensive list, see: Brook Emery at AustLit
  39. ↑ Annand, Helen (ed.) (1998), The Second Worst Thing: Poems on Surviving the Death of a Child, Bendigo, Vic: Helen Annand, 1998. ISBN   0958602700
  40. ↑ Pretty, Ron (ed.) (1999), The Argument from Desire: The 1999 Newcastle Poetry Prize Anthology, Wollongong, NSW: Five Islands Press, 1999. ISBN   978-0-8641-8567-9
  41. ↑ Leonard, John (ed.) (2001), New Music: An Anthology of Contemporary Australian Poetry, Wollongong, NSW: Five Islands Press, 2001. ISBN   978-0-8641-8692-8
  42. ↑ Hicks, Sue & Gardner, Danny (2001), Ten Years Live: Ironic, Satiric, Sardonic, Humorous Verse, Cremorne, NSW: Live Poets' Press, 2001. ISBN   978-1-8631-9012-1
  43. ↑ The Opening of Borders: An Anthology of Poetry by Participants at the XXI World Congress of Poets, Sydney, 2001, Ryde, NSW: World Congress of Poets, 2001. ISBN   978-0-8641-8658-4
  44. ↑ Owen, Jan & Boyle, Peter (2001 ), Time's Collision with the Tongue: The Newcastle Poetry Prize Anthology, Wollongong, NSW: Five Islands Press in collaboration with Coal River Press, 2001. ISBN   978-0-8641-8698-0
  45. ↑ Hicks, Sue & Gardner, Danny (2003), Open Boat, Barbed Wire Sky: Poems for Refugees, Cremorne, NSW: Live Poets' Press, 2003. ISBN   978-0-6464-2122-3
  46. ↑ Ianssen, Robyn, Copello, Beatriz & Davis, Ann (eds.) (2003), Reunion (Poems by XXI World Congress of Poets), Ryde, NSW: Robyn Ianssen Productions, 2003. ISBN   0957735677
  47. ↑ Bean, Joan Marion & Blaney-Murphy, Kelly (eds.) (2004), Suburbs of the Mind: A Poetry Anthology, Gosford, NSW: Central Coast Poets Inc., 2004. ISBN   978-0-9585-9973-3
  48. ↑ Beveridge, Judith, Harrison, Martin & and Kent, Jean (eds.), The Honey Fills the Cone: Newcastle Poetry Prize Anthology 2006, Newcastle, NSW: Hunter Writers' Centre, 2006. ISBN   978-0-9758-3541-8
  49. ↑ Pretty, Ron (ed.) (2007), The Road South: An Anthology of Contemporary Australian Poetry, Kolkota, India: Bengal Creations, 2007. ISBN   978-8-1903-5243-7
  50. ↑ Brooks, David (ed.) 2008, The Best Australian Poetry 2008, St. Lucia, QLD: University of Queensland Press. ISBN   978-0-7022-3654-9
  51. ↑ Page, Geoff (ed.) (2009), 60 Classic Australian Poems, Sydney, NSW: University of New South Wales Press, 2009. ISBN   978-1-9214-1079-6
  52. ↑ Wicks, Les (ed.), (2009), Guide to Sydney Beaches, Sydney, NSW: Meuse Press, 2009.
  53. ↑ Leonard, John (ed.) (2009), The Puncher & Wattmann Anthology of Australian Poetry, Glebe, NSW: Puncher & Wattmann, 2009. ISBN   978-1-9214-5029-7
  54. ↑ Adamson, Robert (ed.) (2010), The Best Australian Poems 2010, Collingwood, VIC: Black Inc., 2010. ISBN   978-1-8639-5496-9
  55. ↑ Tranter, John (ed.) (2011), The Best Australian Poems 2011, Collingwood, VIC: Black Inc., 2011. ISBN   978-1-9218-7045-3
  56. ↑ Page, Geoff (ed.) (2014), The Best Australian Poems 2014, Collingwood, VIC: Black Inc., 2014. ISBN   978-1-8639-5697-0
  57. ↑ Beveridge, Judith & Ogle, Susan (eds.) (2015), Falling and Flying: Poems on Ageing, Blackheath, NSW: Brandl & Schlesinger, 2015. ISBN   978-1-9215-5687-6
  58. ↑ Albiston, Jordie & Brophy, Kevin (eds.) (2015), Prayers of a Secular World, Carlton South, VIC: Inkerman & Blunt Publishers, 2015. ISBN   978-0-9875-4019-5
  59. ↑ Page, Geoff (ed.) (2015), The Best Australian Poems 2015, Collingwood, VIC: Black Inc., 2015. ISBN   978-1-9252-0365-3
  60. ↑ Disney, Dan & Kelen, Kit (eds.) (2016), Writing to the Wire, Crawley, WA: UWA Publishing, 2016. ISBN   978-1-7425-8866-7
  61. ↑ Jones, Amanda (2014), "David 'dazzled' by poetry prize win", University of Canberra, 10 September 2014.
  62. ↑ "VC Poetry Prize: Past Judges", canberra.edu.au.
  63. ↑ The Award's first prize was "$1000 together with a two-week artist residency at Arthur Boyd's Bundanon on the Shoalhaven River" ("Shoalhaven Literary Award for Poetry 2016", Writers Voice, No.251, (March 2016), p. 23).
  64. ↑ "And dug my fingers in the sand / Brook Emery", National Library of Australia.
  65. ↑ "Misplaced heart : poems / Brook Emery", National Library of Australia.
  66. ↑ "At a slight angle : and other poems / by Brook Emery", National Library of Australia.
  67. ↑ "Uncommon light : poems / Brook Emery", National Library of Australia.
  68. ↑ "Uncommon light (sound recording) / Brook Emery", State Library of New South Wales.
  69. ↑ "Collusion / Brook Emery", National Library of Australia.
  70. ↑ "Have been and are / Brook Emery", TROVE: Books & Libraries.
  71. ↑ "Sea scale : new & selected poems / Brook Emery", National Library of Australia.
  72. ↑ "Earthly matters : biology and geology poems / edited by Brook Emery and Victoria Haritos ; project editor Carol Jenkins", National Library of Australia.
  73. ↑ "Law and impulse : maths and chemistry poems / edited by Brook Emery and Victoria Haritos ; project editor Carol Jenkins", National Library of Australia.
  74. ↑ "Holding patterns : physics and engineering poems / edited by Brook Emery and Victoria Haritos ; project editor Carol Jenkins", National Library of Australia.
  75. ↑ "Naming the particulars / edited by Brook Emery ; (introduction by) Brook Emery", National Library of Australia.
  76. ↑ Emery, Brook (2000), "The Distance and the Heat", Cordite Poetry Review, Nos.6-7, (2000), p. 30.
  77. ↑ Emery, Brook (2000), "Physical", Antipodes, Vol.14, No.2, (December 2000), p. 133 (JSTOR   41958113).
  78. ↑ First published at pp. 11-15 of Pretty, Ron (ed.) (1999), The Argument from Desire: The 1999 Newcastle Poetry Prize Anthology, Wollongong, NSW: Five Islands Press, 1999. ISBN   978-0-8641-8567-9
  79. ↑ Beatty (2001).
  80. ↑ "2002 Competition". 2002 Competition. 5 April 2003. Archived from the original on 5 April 2003. Retrieved 14 October 2025– via National Library of Australia.

References

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.