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Peter Daniel Steele AM (22 August 1939 – 27 June 2012) was an Australian poet and academic at the University of Melbourne. He was also a member of the Jesuit order and a Catholic priest. He was awarded the Christopher Brennan Award, for lifetime achievement in poetry, in 2010.
Peter Steele | |
|---|---|
| Born | Peter Daniel Steele 22 August 1939 Perth, Western Australia |
| Died | 27 June 2012 (aged 72) Kew, Victoria, Australia |
| Nationality | Australian |
| Alma mater | University of Melbourne |
| Occupation(s) | poet and academic |
| Known for | Plenty: Art into Poetry |
Peter Daniel Steele was born on 22 August 1939, the eldest of three sons, to an English immigrant father and Irish-English-Australian mother, Jesse. His father became Catholic when he married Jesse, and Peter was pious as a boy.[1]
Steele grew up in Perth, Western Australia. He was educated at Christian Brothers' College there, then Loyola College in Melbourne. He attended the University of Melbourne (MA and PhD); Canisius College in Sydney, and the Jesuit Theological College in Melbourne.[2]
In 1966[citation needed] Steele joined the English Department at the University of Melbourne, and was appointed to a personal chair in English there[3] in 1993.[1] He went on to become emeritus professor of English at the university after his retirement in 2005.[1]
The poem "Saying" was published in Meanjin Quarterly in March 1965.[4]
Steele became a much published poet, critic, and commentator in books, magazines, and journals.[1]
He was a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities[3] and Lockie Fellow at the University of Melbourne.[citation needed] He was a visiting professor at the University of Alberta, at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., and at Loyola University Chicago.[3]
In 2012 he was made a Member of the Order of Australia, for service to literature and higher education as a poet, author, scholar and teacher, and to the Catholic Church.[2][1]
Other recognition and honours include:
- 2008: Honorary doctorate (DLitt), by the University of Melbourne[1][3]
- 2009: Philip Hodgins Memorial Medal at Mildura Writers' Festival[2]
- 2010: Christopher Brennan Award for Lifetime Achievement at the Fellowship of Australian Writers Victoria National Literary Awards[2]
- 2010: Honorary doctorate, Notre Dame University, Indiana, US[1]
- 2011: Honorary doctorate, Australian Catholic University, Canberra[1]
Steele died of liver cancer[1] several years after diagnosis,[5] on 27 June 2012 at Caritas Christi Hospice in Kew, Melbourne, aged 72. He was survived by one brother, Jack.[1]
Peter Steele Poetry Award
The Peter Steele Poetry Award, a scholarship available to PhD students at the University of Melbourne,[6] funded by the Peter Steele Poetry Trust Fund, which was established by Susan Crennan AC QC in November 2017.[7] The endowment is supplied by a group of donors, including Susan Crennan, Michael Crennan QC, Allan Myers AC QC, and Maria Myers AC, Peter's brother Jack Steele, and others.[6]
Peter Steele Poet in Residence
The Peter Steele Poet in Residence is a residency set up in late 2022. The inaugural poet in residence, from January 2023, is Maxine Beneba Clarke.[8]
Poetry collections
- Word from Lilliput : poems. 1973.
- Marching on Paradise. 1984.
- Invisible Riders (1999)
- Plenty: Art into Poetry (2003)
- The Whispering Gallery: Art Into Poetry (2006)
- White Knight with Beebox: New and Selected Poems (2008)
- A Local Habitation: Poems and Homilies (2010)
- The Gossip and the Wine (2011)
Non-fiction
- Jonathan Swift: Preacher and Jester (1978)
- The Autobiographical Passion: studies in the self on show (1989)
- "Joseph Brodsky 1940–1996". Tribute. Quadrant. 40 (3): 16–17. March 1996.
- Bread for the Journey: Homilies (2002)
- Braiding the Voices: Essays in Poetry (2012)
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