Thom Sullivan (poet and editor) was born in 1982. He grew up on a farm in Wistow/Bugle Ranges in the Adelaide Hills in South Australia and studied Arts and Law at the University of Adelaide, and Social Science at Swinburne University, Melbourne. He had a short collection of poems, Airborne, published in New Poets 14 (Wakefield, 2009). Since then he has edited or co-edited seven published books of poetry. His poems have appeared in a range of books and journals, including: Australian Book Review (2016 South Australian “States of Poetry” anthology), Australian Love Poems (Inkerman & Blunt), The Best Australian Poems 2014 (Black Inc), The Best Australian Poems 2015 (Black Inc), The Canberra Times, Cordite Poetry Review, Eureka Street, The Independent Weekly, Otoliths, Tincture and Transnational Literature. He was a featured writer at Adelaide Writers’ Week in 2016 (a podcast of the session is available online) and a guest writer at the South Australian English Teachers’ Association’s Meet the Writers Festival in 2016 and 2017. He lives in Adelaide, where he works in public policy.

In December 2017, it was announced that his manuscript Carte Blanche had won Vagabond  Press’ Noel Rowe Poetry Award 2017-18 (shortlist / judges’ report).

Links to selected online poems

• “Suburban Panopticon”, Australian Book Review (2016)
• “In Camera”, Australian Book Review (2016)
• “All Things Go”, Australian Book Review (2016)
• “Carte Blanche”, Cordite Poetry Review and The Best Australian Poems 2014 (2014)
• “Homo Suburbiensis”, Cordite Poetry Review (2014)
• 4 poems (“Via Anglesea”, “Flotsam at Gibson’s Steps”, “Summer Dam”, “When the Rain Comes On”), Eureka Street (2008)

Collection of poems

• Sullivan, Thom, 2009, Airborne, in Emmett, ML, Hardy, Rob & Sullivan, Thom, 2009, New Poets 14, ed. Courtney Black, Wakefield, Adelaide. (out of print)
• Ken Bolton on Airborne: “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 and ordering are remembered for delivering an experience that the reader feels sharply.”

Editing

• Gibbins, Ian, 2012, Urban Biology, ed. Thom Sullivan, Wakefield, Adelaide.
• Pfitzner, John, Jones, Gareth Roi & Mead, Rachael, 2012, New Poets 17, ed. Thom Sullivan, Wakefield, Adelaide.
• Brydon, John, Hopkins, Mike & Hanson, Simon, 2011, New Poets 16, ed. Thom Sullivan, Wakefield, Adelaide.
• McKenna, Louise, Arden, Lynette & Furtak-Ellis, Sher’ee, 2010, New Poets 15, ed. Thom Sullivan, Wakefield, Adelaide.

Co-editing

• Dinic, Jelena, Jones, Gareth Roi & Sullivan, Thom (eds.), 2014, The Infinite Dirt, Friendly Street Poets, Adelaide.
• Alder, Kate, Dinic, Jelena & Eli, Indigo, 2013, New Poets 18, eds. Alison Flett & Thom Sullivan, Friendly Street Poets, Adelaide.
• Coleman, Aidan & Sullivan, Thom (eds.), 2012, Light & Glorie, Pantaenus, Adelaide.

Reviewing

• John Kinsella’s Graphology Poems: 1995-2015 for Plumwood Mountain (2017)
• Arjun von Caemmerer’s Vice Versa: New and Selected Poems for Cordite Poetry Review (2017)
• Best New Zealand Poems 2015, ed. John Newton (blog post)
• Kathryn Hummel’s The Bangalore Set (blog post)
• Best New Zealand Poems 2014, ed. Vincent O’Sullivan (blog post)
• Jordie Albiston’s The Book of Ethel (blog post)
• Adrian Flavell’s On Drowning a Rat (blog post)

“Light & Glorie”

In 2012, Sullivan and fellow Adelaide poet Aidan Coleman invited South Australian poets to write about the renowned stained glass windows in Saint Bartholomew’s Church, Norwood. Thirty poets took up the challenge. The project culminated in a reading, at which poets read alongside the windows, and the publication of an anthology.

• Reflections on the project’s five year anniversary (November 2017) (Facebook)
• 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

On Twitter: @thomsullivansa

On Facebook

On AustLit

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

“Thomas  Sullivan” “Tom Sullivan” Adelaide