Geoff Goodfellow – May 21 2017

Australia’s Biggest Morning Tea (Cancer Council Australia) – May 25 2017

Geoff grew up in the inner-northern suburbs of Adelaide in a war-service group scheme house. He left school at 15 to work in a variety of jobs before beginning to write poetry in his early 30s after a severe back injury brought about his early retirement from the building industry. Geoff has performed his poetry to prisoners, primary-school children, in tiny pubs and at many major literary festivals. He has worked as a writer-in-residence in a diverse range of settings in Australia and overseas, including a national Australian touring residency taking poetry to building workers. Geoff’s work often provides a public voice for those living close to the margins and who are generally under-represented in contemporary literature. His other poetry works include No Collars No Cuffs, Love is Cruel and Punch On Punch Off.  In 2008 Geoff was diagnosed with cancer. He has made a great recovery and now has a synthetic voice box installed in his throat. His battle for survival is recorded in Waltzing with Jack Dancer: a slow dance with cancer.

Opening the Windows to Catch the Sea Breeze: Selected poems 1983-2011
Wakefield Press, 2014; ISBN 9781743052952
Opening the Windows to Catch the Sea Breeze showcases Geoff’s personal favourites, poems that audiences have requested time and again. It includes an author’s introduction detailing how he transitioned his working life to become a poet. ‘There’s a lot of anger inside the hard man of Australian poetry …. But neither is he afraid of revealing softer emotions …. He’s written about his sister, who was beaten up severely by her husband, about the down-and-out characters who populate the street where he lives, about a lot of people whom poetry isn’t normally about.’ – Nikki Barrowclough, Good Weekend

Poems for a Dead Father
Carcanet Poetry, 1996; ISBN 9781857542493
In this collection of poems, the poet remembers his often violent childhood with such poems as ‘A Mirror to my Childhood’ which reflects on living with an alcoholic father. The poems also discuss themes of love, loyalty and laughter. ‘This poetry is unmistakenly Australian, working-class and masculine, emerging from deep within a world of Vietnam veterans, drink, death, family, frayed lino, laminex and sex, and the politics of class.’ – Lyn McCredden, The Age