Timothy Colin Thorne (25 March 1944 – 16 September 2021) was an Australian contemporary

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral or writte ...

Career

Born in Launceston, Thorne wrote fifteen volumes of

poetry Poetry (derived from the Greek ''poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meanings i ...

, the most recent being ''Running Out of Entropy'' (2018, Walleah Press). In 1985, he inaugurated the Tasmanian Poetry Festival, which he directed until 2001 and which incorporates his invention, the Launceston Poetry Cup, a performance poetry concept now imitated all over Australia and internationally. Thorne had been writer-in-residence with a number of organisations, including the Miscellaneous Workers Union and the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery, and had worked as a poet in schools, universities and prisons.

Awards

He was awarded a number of prizes, including Stanford Writing Scholarship, 1971; ''New Poetry'' Award, 1973;

Marten Bequest Travelling Scholarship The Marten Bequest is an Australian charitable trust, from which scholarships are awarded by the Australia Council for the Arts on behalf of the trustee, Perpetual Limited. The scholarships are known as the Marten Bequest Travelling Scholarsh ...

for poetry, 1978, and the Gleebooks Poetry Sprint, 1995. He won the Launceston Poetry Cup in 2006 and 2008 and was a finalist in the Australian National Poetry Slam in 2009 and 2010. He was awarded the William Baylebridge Memorial Award for ''A Letter to Egon Kisch'' in 2007, the

Christopher Brennan Award The Christopher Brennan Award (formerly known as the Robert Frost Prize) is an Australian award given for lifetime achievement in poetry. The award, established in 1973, takes the form of a bronze plaque which is presented to a poet who produces w ...

in 2013 and the

Gwen Harwood Poetry Prize The Gwen Harwood Poetry Prize (also known as the Gwen Harwood Memorial Poetry Prize) was created in 1996 in memory of the Tasmanian poet, Gwen Harwood. The prize is run by Island Magazine and is awarded to a single poem or a linked suite of poems. ...

in 2014. He also received grants and fellowships from the Australia Council, Arts Tasmania and the Eleanor Dark Foundation.

Activism

Thorne had an abiding interest in creating opportunities for poets and other artists with disabilities and from 1998 to 2000 he was National Secretary of DADAA (Disability and the Arts, Disadvantage and the Arts Australia). In 1999–2000, he was writer/co-ordinator for a national project for writers with cerebral palsy, conducted through Arts 'R' Access. In 2002, he was editor of the ''Launceston Longpoem'', a web-based community writing project funded through Tasmanian Regional Arts. He was also active in campaigns for peace and environmental values. He was instrumental in establishing the Vietnam Moratorium protests in Launceston in 1969, the Northern Tasmanian Unemployed Workers' Union in 1978, Now We the People (Tasmania) in 2000 and the Campaign for a Clean Tamar Valley in 2006. In 2014 he was elected President of TAP into a Better Tasmania (formerly Tasmanians Against a Pulp Mill) and National President of SEARCH (Social Education, Action and Research Concerning Humanity) Foundation.

Personal life

Born in

Launceston, Tasmania Launceston () or () is a city in the north of Tasmania, Australia, at the confluence of the North Esk and South Esk rivers where they become the Tamar River (kanamaluka). As of 2021, Launceston has a population of 87,645. Material was copied ...

, Thorne lived there most of his life, apart from short periods in Sydney, NSW and Palo Alto, California. He married Stephanie Lyne in 1969 and they had two daughters and two granddaughters. He died on 16 September 2021, aged 77.

Bibliography

*''Tense Mood and Voice''. (Lyre-Bird Writers, Sydney, 1969) *''The What of Sane''. (Prism Books, Sydney, 1971) *''New Foundations''. (Sydney: Poetry Society of Australia, 1976) *''A Nickel in My Mouth''. (Robin Hill Books, Flowerdale, 1979) *''The Atlas''. (Wentworth Falls, NSW: Black Lightning Press, 1982) *''Red Dirt''. (Paper Bark Press, Sydney, 1990) *''The Streets Aren't for Dreamers''. (Shoestring Press, Nottingham, 1995) *''Taking Queen Victoria to Inveresk''. (QVM&AG, Launceston, 1997) *''Head and Shin''. (Hobart: Walleah Press, 2004) *''Best Bitter''. (PressPress, Berry, 2006) *''A Letter to Egon Kisch''. (Cornford Press, Launceston, 2007) *''I Con''. (Salt, 2008) *''Yeah No.'' (PressPress, 2012) *''The Unspeak Poems and other verses.'' (Walleah Press, 2014) *''Running Out of Entropy'' (2018, Walleah Press)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Thorne, Tim 1944 births 2021 deaths Australian male poets Writers from Tasmania Australian publishers (people) People from Launceston, Tasmania University of Tasmania alumni 20th-century Australian poets 20th-century Australian male writers 21st-century Australian poets 21st-century Australian male writers