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Tasmanian Literary Awards

The Walnut Tree by Tim Slade (Bright South)

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The Walnut Tree

The Walnut Tree is audacious yet down-to-earth writing by Tim Slade. Many of the poems are portraits, reflecting Tim’s kinship with, and love for his community. Having grown up in Hobart's industrial suburbs and seeing his teaching career curtailed by chronic auto-immune illnesses, Tim moved to the tiny former tin-mining town of Pioneer. There he found himself spearheading a decade-long campaign for safe drinking water for the town's people. Tim understands, and writes of, the challenges many Tasmanians face, including disability and disadvantage. The Walnut Tree speaks of identity, family and the effects of our social and industrial landscapes on humans and other species. It offers a response from the heart to Indigenous culture and Country. Tim’s poetry engages, often humorously, with poets such as Les Murray and Clive James. Tim’s poetry celebrates and satirises. David Mason, a former poet laureate of Colorado, has called Tim: “…a real poet who honours his island home with the sensitivity and sense of his attention.” Tasmanian poet Karen Knight writes: “This poet has a certain shimmer to his writing and deserves to be read.”

About the author

Tim Slade is a Tasmanian poet. He was shortlisted for the 2018 Margaret Reid International Poetry Prize, and his poems have been widely published and broadcast, including for ABC Radio National, Australian Poetry Anthology, The Weekend Australian, The Koori Mail and Growing Up Disabled In Australia. Born in 1976, Tim was raised in Hobart’s Risdon Cove, in the industrial suburb of Lutana. In 2009 he moved to the tiny town of Pioneer, near the Blue Tier, in Tasmania’s north-east. Over the span of a decade, from his tin-miner’s cottage, Tim wrote the poems for his debut collection, The Walnut Tree. During the years 2013 – 2022, Tim has contributed twenty-seven articles for Tasmanian Times, investigating the recurring health risks from heavy metals in the drinking water at Pioneer. Tim has volunteered as an advocate for the community, and he has worked to reform the policies and practices affecting drinking water in Tasmania. In 2021 Tim was a finalist in the Tasmanian Disability Awards, for 'Volunteer of the Year' and 'Excellence in the Arts'.