About

I grew up on a farm in Wistow/Bugle Ranges in the Adelaide Hills, South Australia, & studied Arts & Law at Adelaide University, & Social Science at Swinburne University, Melbourne. A short collection of my poems was published in New Poets 14 (Wakefield, 2009). My poems have appeared in Australian Book Review (States of Poetry), Australian Love Poems, Australian Poetry Anthology, The Best Australian Poems 2014 & 2015, The Canberra Times, Cordite Poetry Review, Eureka Street, The Independent Weekly, Marrickville Pause, Otoliths, Tincture Journal & Transnational Literature. I’ve been a featured writer at Adelaide Writers’ Week (podcast) & SAETA’s Meet the Writers Festival 2016-18. My manuscript Carte Blanche won the 2017-18 Noel Rowe Poetry Award (shortlist/report) & is forthcoming with Vagabond Press in 2019.

Selected poems

• ‘Hit Single’, Australian Poetry Anthology, vol. 6, 2018
• ‘Drysdale: Vaucluse, 1945’, Marrickville Pause, 2018
• ‘‘Diesel & Dust’ homestead [a landscape]’, Otoliths, 2018
• ‘Threshold’, The Canberra Times 17/03/2018, 2018
• ‘Beach Road’, Tincture Journal, 2017
• ‘Suburban Panopticon’, Australian Book Review, 2016
• ‘In Camera’, Australian Book Review, 2016
• ‘All Things Go’, Australian Book Review, 2016
• ‘Where Brownlee Went’, Australian Book Review, 2016
• ‘Elaterid, Harbinger’, Australian Book Review, 2016
• ‘Freehold’, The Best Australian Poems 2015 (Black Inc), 2015
• ‘Blush’, Transnational Literature, 2014
• ‘Carte Blanche’, Cordite & The Best Australian Poems 2014 (Black Inc), 2014
• ‘Homo Suburbiensis’, Cordite, 2014
• ‘Nothing Doing’, Australian Love Poems (Inkerman & Blunt), 2013
• ‘Jukebox’, Eureka Street, 2009
• 4 poems (‘Via Anglesea’, ‘Flotsam at Gibson’s Steps’, ‘Summer Dam’, ‘When the Rain Comes On’), Eureka Street, 2008

Reviews

• John Kinsella & Paul Kane’s Renga: 100 Poems, Plumwood Mountain, 2018
• John Kinsella’s Graphology Poems: 1995-2015, Plumwood Mountain, 2017
• Arjun von Caemmerer’s Vice Versa: New & Selected Poems, Cordite, 2017
• Best New Zealand Poems 2015, ed. J Newton
• Kathryn Hummel’s The Bangalore Set
• Best New Zealand Poems 2014, ed. V O’Sullivan
• Jordie Albiston’s The Book of Ethel
• Adrian Flavell’s On Drowning a Rat

Short collection of poems

• Sullivan, Thom, 2009, Airborne, in Emmett, ML, Hardy, R & Sullivan, T, 2009, New Poets 14, ed. C Black, Wakefield. (out of print)
• Ken Bolton: ‘This collection demonstrates a control that is sure but not rigid, that reveals itself only as formal grace. The poems are memorable: their imagery stays with us, their pacing & ordering are remembered for delivering an experience that the reader feels sharply.’

Editing

• Gibbins, I, 2012, Urban Biology, ed. T Sullivan, Wakefield.
• Pfitzner, J, Jones, GR & Mead, R, 2012, New Poets 17, ed. T Sullivan, Wakefield.
• Brydon, J, Hopkins, M & Hanson, S, 2011, New Poets 16, ed. T Sullivan, Wakefield.
• McKenna, L, Arden, L & Furtak-Ellis, S, 2010, New Poets 15, ed. T Sullivan, Wakefield.

Co-editing

• Dinic, J, Jones, GR & Sullivan, T (ed.), 2014, The Infinite Dirt, Friendly Street.
• Alder, K, Dinic, J & Eli, I, 2013, New Poets 18, ed. A Flett & T Sullivan, Friendly Street.
• Coleman, A & Sullivan, T (ed.), 2012, Light & Glorie, Pantaenus.

‘Light & Glorie’

In 2012, Aidan Coleman and I invited South Australian poets to write about the renowned stained glass in St. Bart’s Church, Norwood. 30 poets took up the challenge. The project culminated in the publication of an anthology, & a reading at which poets read alongside the windows.

• Reflections on the project’s 5 year anniversary, 2017
• News.com.au article
• Radio Adelaide interview
• ABC Radio National ‘The Spirit of Things’ podcast, with images of the windows
• Robert Rath’s photos of the reading

Twitter: @thomsullivansa

Instagram: @thomsullivansa

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Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/danieltindale