Overview
Timoshenko Aslanides' first book of poems, The Greek Connection, won him the British Commonwealth Poetry Prize for 1978 for the best first book of poems in English, published the previous year in the British Commonwealth excluding England. He was the first Australian to win this prize.
In his numerous subsequent books of poetry, he has sought to describe and affirm what it is to be an Australian and to celebrate the natural and built environment of the country, and the history and imaginative genius of the people, all within the context of a lyric poetry inspired by love. Collected Poems assembles the best of his entire work as a poet, including some previously unpublished poems.
A proudly Australian-born and Australia-focused full-time professional poet, Timoshenko Aslanides has noted that this is probably his last book of poetry. He often needs to deal with the common misconception that, because he has a Greek surname, he must be an 'ethnic' poet who writes 'multicultural' poetry. He is not.
Aslanides is first and foremost someone in love with language, fascinated by form, committed to a sense of the Australian nation, and engaged with human experience at its many versatile levels.
He would like to see his poetry taught in Australian schools and universities so that, supplemented by the teaching of other Australian literatures, Australian children and young adults can obtain an appreciation of how they relate to each other and where they live, and what the possibilities are for them to make both a living for themselves in that environment and a positive difference for the nation.
Aslanides was named Artist of the Year for 2002 by The Canberra Times. His proposed preamble to the Australian Constitution was published in the April 2015 edition of Quadrant.
