Legendary poet Chris Wallace-Crabbe has a well-honed connection with Tasmania.
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The Melbourne 82-year-old first travelled to Tasmania as a young child whilst his father was serving in India during the war.
He fondly remembers visiting Mount Wellington with his mother and brother.
Since then, Wallace-Crabbe has returned to share his literary expertise at speaking engagements, and to holiday on the East Coast with his partner.
Wallace-Crabbe’s current visit to Tasmania signifies his involvement in the Tasmanian Poetry Festival.
He will host a lecture presented by the Tasmanian Writers’ Centre and the festival, ‘Poetry and the Escaping Self: A Lecture with Chris Wallace Crabbe’.
The event will be held at the NICS Building in Launceston on Monday night.
The lecture will explore how poetry is created in a way which is impersonal enough to be considered timeless, whilst also drawing on the poet’s experience.
Striking the balance between expression and relatability is an art form in itself, according to Wallace-Crabbe.
"Treating language as one's clay, one's paint, getting language to have shapes, have echoes, have music, and for the whole poem to have what we might loosely call a form [is a challenge],” Wallace-Crabbe said.
Wallace-Crabbe was awarded the Order of Australia for his services to Australian literature in 2011.
He was founding director of the Australian Centre at Melbourne University.
Wallace-Crabbe laughed that he held other occupations to make money including teaching.
Teaching has taken him to prestigious institutions including Harvard and Yale in the US.
Wallace-Crabbe’s love affair with the written word started early, after he leant to read at a “very, very” young age.
"My father was away at the war for four and half years so I was a very [well-read] boy,” Wallace-Crabbe said.
I maintained my great interest in language, colourful phrases, odd expressions, strange metaphors. All these sorts of things sat in my mind.
- Poet Chris Wallace-Crabbe
"I maintained my great interest in language, colourful phrases, odd expressions, strange metaphors.
“All these sorts of things sat in my mind as very vivid and very fertile."
Wallace-Crabbe laughed that he was attracted to poetry rather than longer-form literature due to its comparatively brief length.
"[Poetry] seemed able to concentrate - feeling and perception and its own shape all in one bundle, and I got very interested in that," Wallace-Crabbe said.
The beginning of the poetic process varies for Wallace-Crabbe.
Whilst grappling with grief following the death of his eldest son, simply the word “erstwhile” instigated Wallace-Crabbe’s poem My Erstwhile Son.
“That word released the poem and then I was able to write it,” Wallace-Crabbe said.
“But until then, it just sounded like whining."
He said he has published about 1000 poems throughout his illustrious career, and more than 20 books of poetry.
Tasmanian Writers’ Centre marketing and communications manager Stephanie Eslake said it meant “a great deal” to the centre to have a guest as prestigious as Wallace-Crabbe present lectures in Launceston and Hobart.
“Not only does Chris' background impress, but hearing him talk about Australian poetry is inspiring and educational,” Ms Eslake said.
Wallace-Crabbe said the Australian poetry scene had evolved, with many more avenues for publishing.
He said he would advise younger poets to “be interesting” and ask difficult questions through their work.
Wallace-Crabbe has no plans to stop writing poetry, and has published poems this year, having learnt many lessons throughout his storied life.
“I've increasingly realised that you can explore all sorts of things, philosophical questions as well as visions of landscape, understandings of Australian history, as well as personal emotions," Wallace-Crabbe said.
"I love the idea of going to a writers’ festival because it will be full of surprises and a Tasmanian writers’ festival, the attraction around that is a modesty of scale," he said.
Chris Wallace-Crabbe will present the ‘Poetry and Escaping the Self’ lecture from 7pm until 8.30pm on Monday October 3 at Community Room 2 of the NICS Building, 41 Frankland Street, Launceston.
Tickets are $15 for Tasmanian Writers’ Centre members and $20 for non-members.
Tickets can be purchased at the door or online at www.taswriters.org
