Kerry Leves Kerry Leves i(A11389 works by)
Born: Established: 1948 Balmain, Glebe - Leichhardt - Balmain area, Sydney Inner West, Sydney, New South Wales, ; Died: Ceased: 5 May 2011 Darlinghurst, Kings Cross area, Inner Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales,
Gender: Male
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BiographyHistory

Descended from Irish convicts and Danish immigrants, Kerry Leves published poetry and prose in various magazines, newspapers and anthologies as well as in his own selected works. In the early 1980s he lived and worked in India before returning to Australia and working as a teacher of English as a Second Language.

At the time of his death, Leves was close to completing a doctoral thesis on Randolph Stow (q.v.).

Most Referenced Works

Notes

  • For information about this author's works for children not included in AustLit, see Australian Children's Books by Marcie Muir and Kerry White (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1992-2003).
  • Overland magazine published a memorial blog in honour of Kerry Leves. It can be found at: http://web.overland.org.au/2011/06/a-kerry-leves-memorial/
    Overland's poetry editor, Peter Minter (q.v.) begins the blog by recognising Leves as 'man of great heart, spirit and intellect, and long-term friend and contributor to Overland'.

Awards for Works

y separately published work icon A Shrine To Lata Mangeshkar Glebe : Puncher and Wattmann , 2007 Z1512414 2007 selected work poetry

'Is it flowers? Women plait them into their hair; truckies flower their driving-cabins for long dusty journeys...

'Is it colour? Emerald green ricefields; or the sun's gold flare on an egret's wing as it rises? Is it the yellow of mustard flowers, or the gaudy spectrum of a street festooned with movie posters? Is it Varanasi - the country's spiritual heart, some say - where pilgrims dunk themselves in the great Ganges River; or Tirupati, pilgrimage place of the south, a thousand steps up a mountain?

'Or is it Arunachala, also in the south, where the sage Ramana Maharshi taught "self inquiry"? (Ask, he said, who inquires?) If Ramana's "self inquiry" suggests a meditator's silence, it may also be relevant to ask, "Who sings?", since music and song permeate India.

'The voice of Lata Mangeshkar, honoured and revered playback singer of over five thousand Indian films, seems to express the soul of India. These poems attempt a tribute. The poet, short-story writer and novelist Vicki Viidikas pitchforked Kerry Leves into India. Together they travelled down, up and across the country. They didn't do it "posh". Out of the travelling came these poems of Kerry's: an outsider's inside journey.' (Publisher's blurb)
2009 shortlisted New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards — Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry
Mountain Walk i "Hauled on a rope of air", 1983 single work poetry
— Appears in: Instructions for Honey Ants and Other Poems 1983; (p. 42-45)
1983 second Mattara Poetry Prize
VIEW ALL AWARDS
Last amended 19 Jul 2011 12:56:31
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