Alan Alexander

(1941- ), born Strabane, Northern Ireland, emigrated from Belfast to WA in 1965. With the assistance of two writing fellowships from the Literature Board and part-time teaching, Alexander has managed to support himself as a writer. He has published four books of verse: In the Sun's Eye (1977) and Scarpdancer (1982) reflect his response to new experiences and the beauty of the new land, the limestone area of WA's south coast and the wonderful shining granite of the Darling scarp. Northline (1987) celebrates, with photographs by Victor France, the inner-city area of Northbridge, an area rich in local history but now made equally rich by its colourful cosmopolitan ambience. The staid, rundown urban scene is now permeated with multicultural essences from Italy, Greece, Vietnam, Yugoslavia, Chile, Poland - as poems such as 'Zagreb Mick', 'Visitors', 'The Birth', 'Thelma Cutting Sandwiches' and 'Morning Till Night' affectionately indicate. Important in the evocative poems is the presence of one, she of the 'slim Norse head', who has much to do with the poet falling in love with Northbridge. Principia Gondwana (1992), the title's use of the ancient name of the great continent of which Australia was once considered a part, indicating the poet's linkage of past and present into a single universe of being, continues Alexander's skilful evocation of people and places in dramatically restrained and controlled verse. Figures from WA's history, both Aboriginal and White, inhabit a landscape that Alexander continues to muse on lovingly. 'Night of the Whales' was used as a theme poem by Rodney Waterman at the Contemporary Music Concert at the International Festival in Melbourne and at the Academy of Performing Arts in Perth. It was set to music by Glyn Marillier of Edith Cowan University.

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