Born in Sydney in 1945, one of four siblings, Gregory Bryan Shortis was named for his uncle, who had died in New Guinea the previous year, while with 'M' Special Force, and for his mother, Mary Elizabeth Bryan. his father, John McCauley Shortis, was an industrial chemist.
Shortis was educated at St Bernadette's Catholic Infants School (Bexley North), Our Lady of Fatima Primary School (Kingsgrove), and De La Salle Brothers School (Kingsgrove). In 1963, he commenced a degree at Sydney University, studying German, French, English, and Psychology: he graduated with an honours degree in German and French in 1967.
In 1968, he left Australia with Udo Borgert (subsequently Foundation President of the German Studies Association of Australia) and Joy Borgert, intending to undertake a Masters degree on Swiss writer Conrad Ferdinand Meyer. He travelled via South America, and undertook twelve months' study in Munich and a subsequent ten months' study in Zurich. He also travelled to London and into Yugoslavia.
Returning to Australia in 1970, he undertook part-time teaching work at Sydney University, before being hired for a one-year fellowship at Monash University in 1973. The following year, he moved to the University of New England, where he remained until 1996.
In Armidale, he discovered poetry: he would later found the Regional Poets Cooperative in Armidale, linking regional writers together. With Jim Vicars, he was a co-founder of the New England Review, and with others, including Yve Louis, he co-founded the organisation Poetzinc in 2002. He also organised tours of poets to give readings in Sydney, and edited other poets' work for publication. All of these activities did much to create a space for regional poetry in the New England area.
He began publishing his own poetry in small presses: his first poems were published in Nel Mezzo del Cammin, a Fat Possum Press broadsheet in 1980. He privately printed his first collection of poems, Another Double Please (1981), and subsequent collections were released by Fat Possum Press and Kardoorair Press.
In addition to his work as a lecturer and poet, he also spoke widely at at drug and alcohol rehabilitation organisations.
He died in Narrabundah, a suburb of Canberra, in November 2016, aged 71.
Source: Obituary by Michael Sharkey, provided by the author.
