John Mateer (born 1971) is a South African-born Australian poet and author.

Early life and education

He was born in

Roodepoort Roodepoort is a town in the Gauteng province of South Africa. Formerly an independent municipality, Roodepoort became part of the Johannesburg municipality in the late 1990s, along with Randburg and Sandton. Johannesburg's most famous botanical ...

, South Africa in 1971, and grew up on the outskirts of

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a megacity, and is one of the 100 largest urban areas in the world. According to Dem ...

. He spent some of his childhood in Canada, before returning to South Africa in 1979. In 1989 he moved to Australia with his family. He attended the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa. Since then, he has lived in Melbourne and Perth.

Literary career

Mateer has published several collections of poems. ''Barefoot Speech'' won the 2001 C. J. Dennis Prize for Poetry and ''Loanwords'' was shortlisted for the 2002

Western Australian Premier's Book Awards The Western Australian Premier's Book Awards is an annual book award provided by the Government of Western Australia, and managed by the State Library of Western Australia. History and format Annual literary awards were inaugurated by the West ...

. ''Unbelievers, or The Moor'' was shortlisted for the Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry,

New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards The New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards, also known as the NSW Premier's Literary Awards, were first awarded in 1979. They are among the richest literary awards in Australia. Notable prizes include the Christina Stead Prize for Fiction, t ...

, 2015. He was also a recipient of the Centenary Medal for his contributions to Australian literature. He has read his work at poetry festivals in Asia and Europe, and most recently in Japan and in Malaysia. His works have been translated into Japanese and Portuguese. Mateer was granted a fellowship to travel to

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

, and later published a non-fiction

travelogue Travelogue may refer to: Genres * Travel literature, a record of the experiences of an author travelling * Travel documentary A travel documentary is a documentary film, television program, or online series that describes travel in general or ...

entitled ''Semar's Cave: an Indonesian Journal''.

Works

Poetry * Burning Swans (1994) * Anachronism (1997) * Barefoot Speech (2000) * Loanwords (2002) * The Ancient Capital of Images (2005) * Elsewhere (2007) * Ex-White: South African Poems (2009) * The West: Australian Poems 1989–2009 (2010) * Southern Barbarians (2011) * Unbelievers, or the Moor (2013) * João (2018) Giramondo Travel * Semar's Cave: an Indonesian Journal (2004)

References

1971 births Living people Australian poets Writers from Perth, Western Australia South African poets International Writing Program alumni {{Australia-poet-stub