Rob Walker

Walker’s work often relates to the natural world, children and occasionally political and social issues. He uses diverse genres and styles, often using the vernacular and humour to express complex issues in simple language. Consequently there is no consensus amongst poets or critics as to the value or intent of his work. “Rob Walker's poems concern themselves with injustice, beauty, memory, impressions, captivity and misplaced assistance” (Debra Zott, poet)

He employs a wide variety of genres – text, audio/ video poems, music and spoken word performance poetry. He has had music composed for his work by – and recorded and performed live with – Zephyr Quartet and Max-Mo. He makes his work available to Creative Commons websites where it has been frequently remixed by other artists.

Sparrow In An Airport (NEW POETS TEN Friendly Street/Wakefield Press, 2005) ISBN 1-86254-670-3

Walker has also been published in Australian and international literary journals, magazines and websites and anthologies including Friendly Street Poets Annual Anthologies 2004–2011, Best Australian Poems (ed. Les Murray, Black Inc, 2005), Quadrant, Blue Dog, Blue Giraffe, Blast, 4W, Going Down Swinging, The Adelaide Review, New England Review, Famous Reporter, The Cortland Review, Mascara Literary Journal, Divan, Southern Ocean Review, Cordite Poetry Review, Australian Poetry, Text, LiNQ, The Compulsive Reader, Australian Reader. His audio poems and music have been broadcast on radio and released on CD. Since 2006 his website has been archived by the National Library of Australia.

Rob Walker is a contemporary Australian poet and writer. His poetry has been published widely in magazines, journals, anthologies and online since the mid-1990s. His work has been translated into Arabic, Spanish and Dutch, text-published in English in France and India and e-published on most continents.

Born Robert John Walker on 26 June 1953, Rob Walker has lived in Adelaide or the Adelaide Hills most of his life. He attended Cowandilla Primary and Plympton High Schools and trained as a primary school teacher at Western Teachers College (later University of South Australia.) He has worked as a primary school educator, particularly in the Performing Arts area. In addition to poetry he writes occasional book reviews, articles, essays and short fiction. He currently divides his time between Australia and Himeji, Japan.