Brook Emery | |
|---|---|
| Born | Nigel Westbrook Emery 24 July 1949 |
| Education | B.A. University of Sydney Dip.Ed. University of Sydney M.A. University of Sydney Ph.D. University of Newcastle |
| Genre | Poetry |
| Notable works | and dug my fingers in the sand Misplaced Heart At a Slight Angle Uncommon Light Collusion Have Been and Are Sea Scale |
| Spouse | Susan Jean Dixon (m.1972) |
| Children | 3 |
Brook Emery (born 24 July 1949) is an Australian poet, educator, and surf lifesaver. Described by Martin Duwell as "a major poet", [1] and recipient of the 2011 $25,000 for Poetry Australian Council Literature Board Grant for Developing Writers, [2] Emery has been the New South Wales editor of Blue Dog, the Journal of the Australian Poetry Centre. [3] Along with Peter Minter, David Brooks, and Martin Harrison he was one of the founders of the Sydney Poetry Network. [4] He has chaired the Australian Poetry Festival and the Poets Union, [3] and is a mentor at the Australian Society of Authors. [5]
The son of Englishman Derek John Edward Emery (1914-1975) [6] [7] [a] and his Australian wife, Cecil Audrey "Pat" Westbrook (1921-1965), [8] [9] [10] [11] Nigel Westbrook Emery, known as "Brook", [b] was born at St. Margaret's Maternity Hospital, Darlinghurst, Sydney, New South Wales on 24 July 1949. [12] His father, Derek Emery, was a prominent member of the Dajonian Repertory Society from 1936 to 1940. [13] [14] [15] [16]
Brook had two siblings: a younger brother, Curtis Leigh Emery, known as "Leigh", [17] 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; [18] they had three children: a daughter, and twins (daughter and son). [c]
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, [19] [20] 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), [21] 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. [22]
Emery attended the University of Sydney from 1968 to 1971, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) [23] and a Diploma of Education (Dip.Ed.) [24] in 1972.
He returned to study in the 1980s, graduating with a Master of Arts (M.A.) from the University of Sydney in 1983; [25] 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. [26]
At 13, and competing in the 14 Years category, he swam for Vaucluse High School in the Combined Eastern Suburbs High Schools Swimming Carnival. Swimming in three different events on the same day, 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. [27] Both Emery brothers were accomplished surf swimmers. [28]
Gaining his Bronze Medallion from Surf Life Saving Australia in 1965, he was one of 20 members of the Bondi Surf Bathers' Life Saving Club to be awarded a Patrol Efficiency Pennant for his efforts during the 1964/1965 season. [29] He was a regular member of the Club's beach patrol teams over eight seasons (1964/1965 to 1971/1972). 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]
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 member of the team — and the remaining three lifesavers 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 their 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. [31]
Over eight seasons Brook Emery was a regular member of the Bondi Club's R & R competition team: the Junior R & R team in 1964/1965, [32] 1965/1966, [33] and 1966/1967; [34] and the Senior R & R team in 1967/1968, [35] 1968/1969, [36] 1969/1970, [37] 1970/1971, [38] and 1971/1972. [39]
In the 1970/1971 season Brook Emery was the Vice-Captain of the Bondi Surf Bathers Life Saving Club (BSB.7, p.14); and, at the age of 22, he was the captain of the Club for the 1971/1972 season. [40] [41] He left the Club after the 1971/1972 season due to his posting to Grafton, in the far north-east of New South Wales, as a teacher. [42] [43]
Following his graduation at Sydney University he served for 25 years as a specialist English and History teacher at several NSW high schools: [44] viz., Grafton High School, Sydney Boys High School, Maroubra Bay High School, and Dover Heights High School.
When interviewed in 2013, [44] 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, [45] he stressed that, as a surfer, he was "a body surfer rather than a boardrider".
His first-ever published poem, "Tapping the Market", appeared in Education, the Journal of the New South Wales Teachers Federation in 1993. [46] His poem, "Crossing the Border", which appeared in Southerly in 1994, was the first of his poems to be published in a literary journal. [47] 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. [48] His poem, "Death at Birth", which appeared (p.26) in Helen Annand's (1998) The Second Worst Thing: Poems on Surviving the Death of a Child, was the first of his poems to be published in an anthology. [49] [50]
In addition to Education, Southerly, Spectrum, and The Second Worst Thing, his poems have been published in a wide range of publications. [51]
His poems have also been included in a number of anthologies, [51] such as: The Second Worst Thing (1998); The Argument from Desire (1999); [52] New Music (2001); [53] Ten Years Live (2001); [54] The Opening of Borders (2001); [55] Time's Collision with the Tongue (2001); [56] Open Boat, Barbed Wire Sky (2003); [57] Reunion (2003); [58] Suburbs of the Mind (2004); [59] The Honey Fills the Cone (2006); [60] The Road South (2007); [61] The Best Australian Poetry 2008 (2008); [62] 60 Classic Australian Poems (2009); [63] Guide to Sydney Beaches (2009); [64] The Puncher & Wattmann Anthology of Australian Poetry (2009); [65] The Best Australian Poems 2010 (2010); [66] The Best Australian Poems 2011 (2011); [67] The Best Australian Poems 2014 (2014); [68] Falling and Flying: Poems on Ageing (2015); [69] Prayers of a Secular World (2015); [70] The Best Australian Poems 2015 (2015); [71] and Writing to the Wire (2016), [72] etc.
Six collections of his work have been published: and dug my fingers in the sand , in 2000; [d] Misplaced Heart , in 2003; At a Slight Angle , in 2006; Uncommon Light , in 2007; Collusion , in 2012; Have Been and Are , in 2016; [e] and Sea Scale , in 2022.
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. [73] [74] He was appointed judge of the Shoalhaven Literary Award for Poetry 2016. [75]