Calanthe Poetry is recalling with fondness and gratitude renowned Australian author and poet David Malouf AO.
The award-winning Queensland author died at the age of 92 on April 22.
Mr Malouf was a regular visitor to Tamborine Mountain, attending Calanthe’s poetry nights as a guest poet for around three years.
Born in Brisbane in 1934, he was well known for his prose works, including his first novel Johnno (1975), but initially concentrated on poetry.
Calanthe Poetry secretary Geoff Cartwright said he was deeply saddened by the news of Mr Malouf’s passing.
Calanthe Poetry been putting out feelers for him to attend one of their pop-up poetry nights as a guest speaker for some time, when one night he just turned up.
“We were trying to attract the most renowned of them all, who happened to live down the road in Surfer’s Paradise,” Geoff recalled.
He later attended as guest of honour to give out prizes for The Calanthe Collective Prize for Unpublished Poetry and they had been looking forward to him returning again in September for the Gala Garden Party.
Geoff said he was an inspiration, particularly to the younger members.
“It was a combination of how humble the man was and how unassuming he was, backed up by this massive body of work that I’m assuming lots of them would have studied in school,” he explained.
“He was an incredibly generous man with his time. He’d sit around have a glass of wine and tell tales.
“He was always an incredible, gracious, sweet, kind man. Reading his obituaries, everyone seems to have exactly the same view of him; this unassuming man who had these extraordinary achievements.
“Unostentatious a brilliant mind and wonderful observer of things,” Geoff described him.
Mr Malouf published seven novels, a novella and numerous short stories, but poetry was his first love and his contribution to poets on Tamborine Mountain will not be forgotten.
