Ron Pretty OAM (born 1940) is an Australian poet, publisher and teacher.

Ron Pretty OAM
Born	1940
Occupation	Teacher, poet
Known for	Poetry

Early life

Ron Pretty was born in 1940.[1]

Career

He has taught writing in the University of Wollongong and Melbourne University as well as in schools, colleges and a broad variety of community organisations. For a twenty-year period he ran Five Islands Press, publishing some 230 books of poetry[2] and mentored many Australian poets. He edited the magazines Scarp: New Arts and Writing and Blue Dog: Australian Poetry for a number of years.[3][4][5]

Pretty was instrumental in establishing the Poetry Australia Foundation,[1] which led to the Australian Poetry Centre,[5] one of two organisations which merged in 2011 to form Australian Poetry.[6]

Recognition

He was awarded the NSW Premier's Award for Poetry and was made a Member of the Order of Australia for services to Australian literature in 2002.[1][7]

Selected works

Poetry

Collections

• The habit of balance. Five Islands Press. 1988.
• Bald Hill with Gliders. Five Islands Press 1991
• Halfway to Eden. Hale & Ironmonger 1996
• Of the Stone: New and Selected Poems. Five Islands Press 2000
• Where the Heart Is. Picaro Press 2009
• Postcards from the Centre. Profile Poetry 2010
• Grace Notes and other poems. PIcaro Press 2012
• What the Afternoon Knows. Pitt Street Poetry 2013

Poems

• "What the house knows" (2014)[8]

Non-fiction

• Creating Poetry. Five Islands Press 1987, 2001
• Nicole: another chance at life. (with Kaye Bowden). Five Islands Press 1993
• Practical Poetics. Five Islands Press 2003

As editor

• Outlook: an anthology of poems for senior students. Longman Cheshire 1992
• Anthology of the Illawarra. Five Islands Press 1994
• Cry Out! An anthology of street poetry (with Ann Davis). Five Islands Press 1996
• The Argument from Desire: the 1999 Newcastle Prize Anthology. Five Islands Press 1999
• Blue Like Tea: an anthology of poems from the Wollongong workshop. Five Islands Press 2000
• Wild About the Roof. Wollongong Poetry Workshop 2001
• Poems for all Occasions. Five Islands Press 2002
• Two Spaces of Poetry: poems from Australia & West Bengal 2006
• The Road South: an anthology of contemporary Australian poetry. Kolkata: Bengal Creations 2007

Reviews

Reviews for Ron Pretty's most recent book, What the Afternoon Knows[9] include:

• John Upton in Cordite Poetry Review: "He’s on top of his craft, shrewdly observant, witty, practical rather than flashy, never tired."[10]
• Les Wicks in the Rochford Street Review: "...there is a deep humanity in his observations and as you would expect, the deft hand of a master craftsman."[11]
• Geoff Page in the Canberra Times: "...it’s refreshing to read a collection where the poems are direct and emotionally engaged, while still possessing the linguistic and intellectual subtlety we rightly demand of poetry."[12]

References