Background
Eric Beach was born in 1947 in Hastings, New Zealand. In 1972, he moved to Australia.
Eric Beach was born in 1947 in Hastings, New Zealand. In 1972, he moved to Australia.
After finishing school, Eric Beach started to attend briefly the Victoria University in Wellington where he moved in 1966.
Eric Beach started his writing activity in the childhood and became interested in poetry in his later teens. His school magazine published his first poems.
In Wellington, Eric became involved in poetry readings, and in 1968 he self-published his first collection, Lyrics & Blues, which he sold himself to everyone in Auckland, New Zeland. He also worked in odd jobs in Wellington and other cities. In early 1972, he left New Zealand for Melbourne where he was involved in organizing poetry festivals, workshops and readings, and contributing to small magazines as an energetic and eccentric poetry figure.
Through the 1970s, Beach published many poetry collections such as Saint Kilda Meets Hugo Ball (1974), In Occupied Territory (1977), and A Photo of Some People in a Football Stadium (1978), and also published poems in different Australian literary journals and magazines.
In 1989, Eric Beach continued the collaboration with local writers’ groups and poetry workshops in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia. In 1996, he published his major book, Weeping for Lost Babylon, a volume which takes its title from an elegy for his son.
He is active in the Australian Poetry scene, performs at workshops and different events around Australia.
Eric Beach was included in every anthology of major literary magazines in Australia. He received many awards for his books, such as the New South Wales Premier's Literary Award, in particular, the Dinny O’Hearn Poetry Prize and Kenneth Slessor Prize, and the Age Poetry Book of the Year award, all in 1996 for Weeping for Lost Babylon.
In 1977 he was one of the founding members of the Poets Union, a not-for-profit union representing Australian poets.
(This collection of poetry ranges from a lament for the po...)
1996
Quotes from others about the person
"A beautiful sense of paced speech, zippy epithets, domestic situations couched in surrealistic images ... a cagey revelation of his own vulnerability, a compassion ... for fragile individuals, and a great sense of humour." Michael Sharkey about Weeping for Lost Babylon
"Beach’s poems reveal the extraordinary intensity of emotions.", "throughout, Beach transforms the everyday, in gnomic or aphoristic turns of phrase that stay in the mind." Michael Sharkey
Eric Beach was first married at the age of 20.
