Peter Daniel Steele AM (22 August 1939 – 27 June 2012) was an Australian poet and academic at the University of Melbourne. He was also a member of the Jesuit order and a Catholic priest. He was awarded the Christopher Brennan Award, for lifetime achievement in poetry, in 2010.

Peter Steele
Born
Peter Daniel Steele

(1939-08-22)22 August 1939
Perth, Western Australia
Died27 June 2012(2012-06-27) (aged 72)
Kew, Victoria, Australia
NationalityAustralian
Alma materUniversity of Melbourne
Occupation(s)poet and academic
Known forPlenty: Art into Poetry

Early life and education

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Peter Daniel Steele was born on 22 August 1939, the eldest of three sons, to an English immigrant father and Irish-English-Australian mother, Jesse. His father became Catholic when he married Jesse, and Peter was pious as a boy.[1]

Steele grew up in Perth, Western Australia. He was educated at Christian Brothers' College there, then Loyola College in Melbourne. He attended the University of Melbourne (MA and PhD); Canisius College in Sydney, and the Jesuit Theological College in Melbourne.[2]

Career

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In 1966[citation needed] Steele joined the English Department at the University of Melbourne, and was appointed to a personal chair in English there[3] in 1993.[1] He went on to become emeritus professor of English at the university after his retirement in 2005.[1]

The poem "Saying" was published in Meanjin Quarterly in March 1965.[4]

Steele became a much published poet, critic, and commentator in books, magazines, and journals.[1]

Recognition and honours

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He was a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities[3] and Lockie Fellow at the University of Melbourne.[citation needed] He was a visiting professor at the University of Alberta, at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., and at Loyola University Chicago.[3]

In 2012 he was made a Member of the Order of Australia, for service to literature and higher education as a poet, author, scholar and teacher, and to the Catholic Church.[2][1]

Other recognition and honours include:

Death and legacy

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Steele died of liver cancer[1] several years after diagnosis,[5] on 27 June 2012 at Caritas Christi Hospice in Kew, Melbourne, aged 72. He was survived by one brother, Jack.[1]

Peter Steele Poetry Award

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The Peter Steele Poetry Award, a scholarship available to PhD students at the University of Melbourne,[6] funded by the Peter Steele Poetry Trust Fund, which was established by Susan Crennan AC QC in November 2017.[7] The endowment is supplied by a group of donors, including Susan Crennan, Michael Crennan QC, Allan Myers AC QC, and Maria Myers AC, Peter's brother Jack Steele, and others.[6]

Peter Steele Poet in Residence

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The Peter Steele Poet in Residence is a residency set up in late 2022. The inaugural poet in residence, from January 2023, is Maxine Beneba Clarke.[8]

Selected bibliography

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Poetry collections

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  • Word from Lilliput : poems. 1973.
  • Marching on Paradise. 1984.
  • Invisible Riders (1999)
  • Plenty: Art into Poetry (2003)
  • The Whispering Gallery: Art Into Poetry (2006)
  • White Knight with Beebox: New and Selected Poems (2008)
  • A Local Habitation: Poems and Homilies (2010)
  • The Gossip and the Wine (2011)

Non-fiction

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  • Jonathan Swift: Preacher and Jester (1978)
  • The Autobiographical Passion: studies in the self on show (1989)
  • "Joseph Brodsky 1940–1996". Tribute. Quadrant. 40 (3): 16–17. March 1996.
  • Bread for the Journey: Homilies (2002)
  • Braiding the Voices: Essays in Poetry (2012)

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j O'Collins, Gerald (2 July 2012). "Glutton for words crafted rare prose". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 28 May 2024.
  2. ^ a b c d "Peter Steele". AustLit. 13 February 2020. Retrieved 28 May 2024. Source: 'Peter Steele' in Mark Thomas Australia in Mind : thirteen influential Australian thinkers (1989): 133-148; 'Steele, Peter (1939-) in William H. Wilde et. al. The Oxford Companion to Australian Literature (1994): 715.
  3. ^ a b c d "- Award of Honorary Degree of Doctor of Letters - Professor Peter Steele" (PDF). University of Melbourne. Archived from the original (PDF) on 5 April 2015.
  4. ^ Steele, Peter (March 1965). "Saying". Meanjin Quarterly. 24 (1): 112.
  5. ^ Middleton, Kate (3 January 2019). "Remembering Peter Steele". Australian Book Review. Retrieved 28 May 2024.
  6. ^ a b "Peter Steele Poetry Award". Scholarships. 8 May 2024. Retrieved 28 May 2024.
  7. ^ "University of Melbourne launches Peter Steele poetry fund". Jesuits Australia. 29 January 2018. Retrieved 28 May 2024.
  8. ^ "Maxine Beneba Clarke named inaugural Poet in Residence". University of Melbourne Faculty of Arts. 15 December 2022. Retrieved 28 May 2024.