Steve Armstrong lives in Newcastle, New South Wales, and writes poetry when he’s not working as a social worker/therapist.
Described as a poet of “landscape, desire, memory, love, lust and loss…” (Mark Tredinnick), he won the Bruce Dawe Poetry Prize in 2015, the Local Award of the Newcastle Poetry Prize in 2014 and 2019. He’s been shortlisted for the Ron Pretty Prize (twice), and the Australian Catholic University Poetry Prize. What’s Left is a collection that of poems that explores what it means to walk with the world; the natural world, or in those pockets of wild close at hand in an urban environment, and for that matter, within ourselves. Broken Ground, his first collection, was released by University of Western Australia Publishing in 2018. He posts poetry on Instagram @lyricforinstance
Links: www.stevearmstrong-poesis.com
Flying Islands Pocket Poet Publications
What’s left
What’s Left picks up where Steve’s 2018 collection Broken Ground left off, and further explores what it means to walk with the natural world. Many poems draw inspiration from classical Chinese poetry where a love of nature leads to a deeper meditation on what it means to be human. “Mengjiao – bird in an empty city”, and “pluck a lotus for pleasure – women poets of the Song Dynasty” are ASM titles that have been particularly influential.