Manifesto: Capture the imagination of the widest possible audience. Invent nothing. Feel everything. Respect your readers and listeners by giving them good writing. In endings, try to give your readers the hope of new beginnings. Or if you can’t do that at least let them really feel the human conditions that speakers and characters in the work find themselves. Most importantly, do not let the craft overwhelm the passion; be aware that the interesting truth is more than fact - you will owe it to the listener and reader to show the emotional theatre of words.
John has lived and travelled widely in Australia, Europe and U.K. He has worked and written in many countries and has been a cartographer, a surveyor, a town and environmental planner, and a water resource-manager. He currently lives in Canberra. John continues to write essays, stories and poems for a very wide audience.
Visit John's listing on the ACT Writers Showcase, here:
LITERARY TIMELINE OF JOHN STOKES
John Stokes was born on a sharefarm on the Georges River near Casula, New South Wales, at a place that no longer exists.
He was "selected out" from a small school at Bossley Park and sent to a selective school at Homebush where he won several literary prizes for his juvenilia. He had a spell at the East Sydney Art School.
Stokes trained as a cartographer with the NSW Department of Lands; later he trained and qualified through the University of NSW as a land surveyor - one of the last of the pupil assistants under the Institution of Surveyors Examinations. He continued to write wherever he found himself.
In 1972 he and his new wife went to Europe and he qualified as a town and environmental planner in London. He suffered what the British call "the pram in the hall syndrome" - but wrote just the same, including technical essays. He was specifically and actively discouraged from writing by Alan Sillitoe.
On returning to Australia his first major collection of poems and prose pieces, A River in the Dark, was published by Five Islands Press in 2003. Subsequently Stokes has won or been shortlisted for many mayor prizes including the Blake, David Campbell, Rosemary Dobson, Newcastle and Woorilla Prizes for Poetry. His work has since been published widely in Australia, Italy, Japan, U.K. and the U.S.A.
His work has appeared in many anthologies, journals and papers, including Antipodes; Best poems in the Australian Capital Territory region;The Canberra Times; Island, Newcastle and Hunter Anthologies; Meanjin, Montreal International Poetry Prize Anthology 2014; Redroom projects; Scarp; University of Canberra' Vice-Chancellor's International Poetry Prize; and Ulitarra.
Stokes represented the A.C.T, and Australia at the 2011 International Poetry Festival on the Lake Orta, Italy, publishing a chapbook:- Dancing in the Yard at Eden through the regional authority there and with the assistance of ArtsA.C.T. A major poem, The Opening - tracing Charles Conder, was accepted in 2012 for the Inaugural Member Anthology of Australian Poetry Ltd.
John Stokes has been a member and a Board member of several Writers Centres; given readings in two hemispheres; tutored in writing and in contract management, and represented literary communities of various colours.
He continues to write and perform his work wherever he finds himself. He was widowered in 2000 and is in a committed relationship with the writer Marion Halligan. His latest major collection, Fire in the Afternoon, was released by Halstead Press in 2014.
John has lived and travelled widely in Australia, Europe and U.K. He has worked and written in many countries and has been a cartographer, a surveyor, a town and environmental planner, and a water resource-manager. He currently lives in Canberra. John continues to write essays, stories and poems for a very wide audience.
Visit John's listing on the ACT Writers Showcase, here:
LITERARY TIMELINE OF JOHN STOKES
John Stokes was born on a sharefarm on the Georges River near Casula, New South Wales, at a place that no longer exists.
He was "selected out" from a small school at Bossley Park and sent to a selective school at Homebush where he won several literary prizes for his juvenilia. He had a spell at the East Sydney Art School.
Stokes trained as a cartographer with the NSW Department of Lands; later he trained and qualified through the University of NSW as a land surveyor - one of the last of the pupil assistants under the Institution of Surveyors Examinations. He continued to write wherever he found himself.
In 1972 he and his new wife went to Europe and he qualified as a town and environmental planner in London. He suffered what the British call "the pram in the hall syndrome" - but wrote just the same, including technical essays. He was specifically and actively discouraged from writing by Alan Sillitoe.
On returning to Australia his first major collection of poems and prose pieces, A River in the Dark, was published by Five Islands Press in 2003. Subsequently Stokes has won or been shortlisted for many mayor prizes including the Blake, David Campbell, Rosemary Dobson, Newcastle and Woorilla Prizes for Poetry. His work has since been published widely in Australia, Italy, Japan, U.K. and the U.S.A.
His work has appeared in many anthologies, journals and papers, including Antipodes; Best poems in the Australian Capital Territory region;The Canberra Times; Island, Newcastle and Hunter Anthologies; Meanjin, Montreal International Poetry Prize Anthology 2014; Redroom projects; Scarp; University of Canberra' Vice-Chancellor's International Poetry Prize; and Ulitarra.
Stokes represented the A.C.T, and Australia at the 2011 International Poetry Festival on the Lake Orta, Italy, publishing a chapbook:- Dancing in the Yard at Eden through the regional authority there and with the assistance of ArtsA.C.T. A major poem, The Opening - tracing Charles Conder, was accepted in 2012 for the Inaugural Member Anthology of Australian Poetry Ltd.
John Stokes has been a member and a Board member of several Writers Centres; given readings in two hemispheres; tutored in writing and in contract management, and represented literary communities of various colours.
He continues to write and perform his work wherever he finds himself. He was widowered in 2000 and is in a committed relationship with the writer Marion Halligan. His latest major collection, Fire in the Afternoon, was released by Halstead Press in 2014.
