Alan Gould
Alan Gould (born 22 March 1949) is a contemporary Australian novelist, essayist and poet.
Alan Gould
- Name
- Alan Gould
- Born
- 22 March 1949
- Birthplace
- London, England
- Occupation
- Novelist, essayist and poet
- Awards
- Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry 1981 winner; Grace Leven Prize for Poetry 2006 winner
- Nationality
- United Kingdom
- Education
- Australian National University · University of Canberra · Woolverstone Hall School
- Honours
- Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry
- Languages
- English
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Alan Gould (born 22 March 1949) is a contemporary Australian novelist, essayist and poet.
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Note VALÉORINE
Alan Gould (born 1949) is a novelist, poet and writer, of British nationality. The novelist was born in London. Alan Gould was educated at Australian National University, University of Canberra and Woolverstone Hall School.
Languages used include English. Honours include Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry.
Composed from admitted, traceable facts · 27 September 2026
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Educated At · outgoing
Australian National University
Organisation

Born In · outgoing
London
Place
Pencil sketch by George Henry Harlow, 1814, http://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/largerimage.php?mkey=mw05495
Citizen Of · outgoing
United Kingdom
Place
Educated At · outgoing
University of Canberra
Organisation
Documentary evidence
Documentary basis
Authority files
wikidata · Q4706743 · wikipedia · Alan Gould
In this article
Key facts
Key facts
• Name — Alan Gould • Born — 22 March 1949 • Birthplace — London, England • Occupation — Novelist, essayist and poet • Language — English • Awards — Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry 1981 winner; Grace Leven Prize for Poetry 2006 winner • Years Active — 1974-
Life and career
Life and career
Gould was born in London to an English father and an Icelandic mother. His family lived in Northern Ireland, Germany and Singapore before arriving in Australia in 1966. He completed a BA at the Australian National University and a Diploma of Education at the then Canberra College of Advanced Education. Having worked as a nuclear physics technician and agricultural labourer, he began writing full-time in 1973, occasionally teaching and writing journalism. Gould's first book of poems, Icelandic Solitaries, was published in 1978. Numerous volumes of poetry and fiction have followed, with his best known novel being To the Burning City (1991), about the relationship between two brothers, set in World War II. His work has been awarded the Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry (1981), the Foundation for Australian Literary Studies Best Book of the Year Award (1985), the National Book Council Banjo Award for Fiction (1992), the Royal Blind Society Audio Book of the Year Award (1999), the Philip Hodgins Memorial Award for contribution to Australian Literature (1999), and the Grace Leven Award For Poetry (2006 for The Past Completes Me - Selected Poems 1973-2003). His novel, The Schoonermaster's Dance, was joint winner of the ACT Book of the Year. Later books include a novel, The Lakewoman, from Australian Scholarly Publishing, and a collection of poems, Folk Tunes, from Salt Publishing, both in 2009. The Lakewoman was shortlisted for the 2010 Prime Minister's Literary Awards. The Seaglass Spiral was published in 2012 by Finlay Lloyd, and in 2013 appeared a collection of poems and a comic opera libretto, Capital from Puncher & Wattmann, and a collection of essays, Joinery and Scrollwork: A Writer's Workbench from Quadrant Books. In 2015 he published a picaresque novel, The Poet's Stairwell, Black Pepper publishing.
Poetry
Poetry
• Collections • The Skald Mosaic: A Sequence of Poems (1975) • Icelandic Solitaries (1978) • Astral Sea (1981) • The Pausing of the Hours (1984) • The Twofold Place (1986) • Years Found in Likeness (1988) • Formerlight: Selected Poems (1992) • Momentum (1992) • Mermaid: Poems and Illustrations (1996) • Dalliance and Scorn (1999) • A Fold in the Light (2001) • The Past Completes Me: Selected Poems 1973-2003 (2005) • Folk Tunes (2009) • Capital (2013) • Charlie Twirl: Sixty-One New Poems (2017) • Selected list of poems • Title — |Year — |First published — |Reprinted/collected • A Sixties poem — 1996
Novels
Novels
• The Man Who Stayed Below (1984) • To the Burning City (1991) • Close Ups (1994) • The Tazyrik Year (1998) • The Schoonermaster's Dance (2001) • The Lake Woman (2009) • The Seaglass Spiral (2012) • The Poet's Stairwell (2015)
Short fiction
Short fiction
• Collections • The Enduring Disguises: Three novellas (1988) • Stories • Title — |Year — |First published — |Reprinted/collected — |Notes • The Webley — 1995
Non-fiction
Non-fiction
• Three Streets in Search of an Author (1993) • The Totem Ship (1996) • Joinery and Scrollwork (2013) * *
Awards
• Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry 1981 winner for Astral Sea • Miles Franklin Award 1992 shortlisted for To the Burning City • Grace Leven Prize for Poetry 2006 winner for The Past Completes Me: Selected Poems 1973-2003 • Prime Minister's Literary Awards - Fiction 2010 shortlisted for The Lake Woman
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.Austlit. Austlit — Alan Gould.
- 2.Alan Gould.
- 3.Gould, Alan. Biography. Alan Gould - Author (Personal website).
- 4.Australian Literature Resources. Alan Gould: Biography. 2004.
- 5.ACT Book of the Year - 2001 Winners. ACT Book of the Year. 10 May 2022.
- 6.Short stories unless otherwise noted.
- 7.Austlit. Austlit — Astral Sea by Alan Gould.
- 8.The Canberra Times, 12 May 1992, p4. "Five vie for literary award". Canberra Times. 12 May 1992.
- 9.Austlit. Austlit — Grace Leven Poetry Prize 2005-2007.
- 10.2010 Shortlist
References
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The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 21 August 2026.
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