Poster, John Forbes will be reading poems from his book Stalin's Holidays with Pam Brown & Others

The John Forbes collection consists of typescript and handwritten drafts poems from 'Tropical Skiing', 'Stalin's Holidays', 'The Stunned Mullet', 'Thin ice and other poems', and 'Collected poems 1970 – 1998'', as well as drafts of other uncollected and unpublished poems; drafts of reviews of art and poetry; drafts of theses and essays; lecture notes; personal and literary correspondence; copies of publications including work by Forbes; work by other poets sent to Forbes for publication or comment. John Forbes was born in Melbourne in 1950 and lived much of his early life in New Guinea, Malaya and Sydney. He graduated from the University of Sydney and worked as a teacher of creative writing, as a reviewer and as a furniture removalist. He won the Poetry Society of Australia New Poetry Award in 1972 and the 'Southerly' Award for young writers in 1976. He received Literature Board grants in 1973 – 1974, 1982, 1988 and 1981 and an Arts Victoria Grant in 1994. He co-edited the journal 'Leatherjacket' and edited the magazine 'Surfers Paradise'. His poetry was widely published in literary magazines both in Australia and overseas. He published seven books of poetry. His final volume 'Damaged Glamour' was published after his death in 1998.