Pi O

Last updated • 1 min readFrom Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia

П. O. (or Pi O, born 1951) is a Greek-Australian, working class, anarchist poet. [1]

Contents

Born in Katerini, Greece, П. O. came to Australia with his family around 1954. After time in Bonegilla Migrant Reception and Training Centre, the family moved to the Melbourne suburb of Fitzroy.

П. O. was inspired to start writing poetry in 1973 when he heard Johnny Cash reciting (religious) poetry while tuning his guitar. П. O. thought he could do as well or better. His work ranges from standup-type rants to 'conceptual' page poetry and concrete poetry, with a heavy emphasis on wordplay and capturing the vitality of everyday speech. Thematically, he commonly portrays the issues of non-Anglo-Celtic working class life. [2]

His first published book, Fitzroy Brothel, was released in 1974. From 1978 to 1983, he was involved in producing the radical poetry magazine 925. After the publication of several more collections, his 740-page epic poem 24hrs was published in 1996 by Collective Effort Press.

He is a fixture of Melbourne's performance poetry scene and has edited an anthology of performance poetry (Off the Record) for Penguin. He has been editor of the literary journal Unusual Work.

П. O. won the 2020 Judith Wright Calanthe Prize for Poetry for Heide at the Queensland Premier's Literary Awards. [3] He is a finalist for the 2021 Melbourne Prize for Literature. [4] In 2024 he won the Patrick White Literary Award. [5]

See also

Bibliography

Edited

Related Research Articles

Gerald Murnane is an Australian novelist, short story writer, poet and essayist. Perhaps best known for his 1982 novel The Plains, he has won acclaim for his distinctive prose and exploration of memory, identity, and the Australian landscape, often blurring fiction and autobiography in the process. The New York Times described Murnane in 2018 as "the greatest living English-language writer most people have never heard of", and he is regularly tipped to win the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Alan Wearne is an Australian poet.

Jas Heriot Duke (1939–1992) was a cult figure in the Australian performance poetry scene. He worked much of his life in Melbourne Board of Works and began writing poetry in 1966. He was influenced by Dada, Expressionism and experimental movements. He writes "I started performing poems as a timid person with a stutter but the spirit of the times soon converted me into a bellowing bull."

Laurence James Duggan, known as Laurie Duggan, is an Australian poet, editor, and translator.

The Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry is awarded annually as part of the New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards for a book of collected poems or for a single poem of substantial length published in book form. It is named after Kenneth Slessor (1901–1971).

Antigone Kefala was an Australian poet and prose-writer of Greek-Romanian heritage. She was a member of the Literature Board of the Australia Council and is acknowledged as being an important voice in capturing the migrant experience in contemporary Australia. In 2017, Kefala was awarded the State Library of Queensland Poetry Collection Judith Wright Calanthe Award at the Queensland Literary Awards for her collection of poems entitled Fragments.

Ouyang Yu is a contemporary Chinese Australian author, translator and academic.

Judith Beveridge is a contemporary Australian poet, editor and academic. She is a recipient of the Christopher Brennan Award.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jennifer Maiden</span> Australian poet (born 1949)

Jennifer Maiden is an Australian poet. She was born in Penrith, New South Wales, and has had 38 books published: 29 poetry collections, 6 novels and 3 nonfiction works. Her current publishers are Quemar Press in Australia and Bloodaxe Books in the UK. She began writing professionally in the late 1960s and has been active in Sydney's literary scene since then. She took a BA at Macquarie University in the early 1970s. She has one daughter, Katharine Margot Toohey. Aside from writing, Jennifer Maiden runs writers workshops with a variety of literary, community and educational organizations and has devised and co-written a manual of questions to facilitate writing by Torture and Trauma Victims. Later, Maiden and Bennett used the questions they had created as a basis for a clinically planned workbook.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bronwyn Lea</span> Australian poet, academic and editor

Bronwyn Lea is a contemporary Australian poet, academic and editor.

Emma Lew is a contemporary Australian poet.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Adam Aitken</span> Australian poet

Adam Aitken is an Australian poet.

The Arts Queensland Judith Wright Calanthe Award is awarded annually as part of the Queensland Premier's Literary Awards for a book of collected poems or for a single poem of substantial length published in book form.

Michael Farrell is a contemporary Australian poet.

Maria Takolander, born in Melbourne in 1973, is an Australian writer of Finnish heritage.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fiona Wright</span> Australian poet and critic (born 1983)

Fiona Wright is an Australian poet and critic.

Lucy Dougan is an Australian poet who began publication in 1998.

Lisa Gorton is an Australian poet, novelist, literary editor and essayist. She is the author of four award-winning poetry collections: Press Release, Hotel Hyperion, Empirical, and Mirabilia. Her second novel, The Life of Houses, received the NSW Premier's People's Choice Award for Fiction and the Prime Minister's Literary Award for Fiction (shared). Gorton is also the editor of Black Inc's anthology Best Australian Poems 2013.

Major poetry related events taking place worldwide during 2020 are outlined below under different sections. This includes poetry books released during the year in different languages, major literary awards, poetry festivals and events, besides anniversaries and deaths of renowned poets etc. Nationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature.

Grace Yee is a poet, writer and creative writing teacher. Her debut verse novel, Chinese Fish, won both the Victorian Prize for Literature and the Mary and Peter Biggs Award for Poetry in 2024.

References

  1. Evans, Brad; Pi O (2000). "Pi O interviewed by Brad Evans". Cordite Magazine. Archived from the original on 20 June 2001. Retrieved 22 October 2007.
  2. Koval, Ramona; Pi O (2008). "Poetic anarchy: Pi O". Radio National . Retrieved 14 January 2009.
  3. "Book about rugby league takes out richest prize in Queensland Literary Awards". www.abc.net.au. 4 September 2020. Retrieved 5 September 2020.
  4. "Melbourne Prize for Literature finalists announced". Books+Publishing. 15 September 2021. Retrieved 17 September 2021.
  5. Mem: 7557520. "Pi-O wins 2024 Patrick White Literary Award | Books+Publishing" . Retrieved 25 October 2024.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)