John Mateer is an important but often overlooked figure in contemporary Australian poetry. He is also the most cosmopolitan in outlook. In his new collection Southern Barbarians he follows the traces of the Portuguese empire, from Lisbon to Angola, Mozambique and South Africa, to Australia, Timor, Malacca, Macau and Japan. The poet inhabits this diasporic world as migrant, tourist, desterrado. He is Cames, author of Os Lusiadas, he is Pessoa of the multiple heteronyms, haunted by doubles and reflections, each place reminding him of other places.

Giramondo publisher Ivor Indyk introduces John Mateer, who will read from his work in this event to mark the publication of Southern Barbarians.

Born in Johannesberg, and based in Perth, John Mateer has published books in Australia, and booklets that have appeared in Australia, South Africa, Indonesia, Japan, Macau and Portugal. In 2001 he was awarded the Victorian Premier’s Prize for Poetry and he is a recipient of a Centenary Medal for his contribution to Australian literature. His latest books are Ex-White: South African Poems (2009) and The West: Australian Poems 1989-2009(Fremantle Press, 2010). Southern Barbarians is his seventh collection of poems published in Australia.