John Mateer
John Mateer (born 1971) is a South African-born Australian poet and author.
John Mateer
- Name
- John Mateer
- Born
- 1971
- Occupation
- Poet
- Awards
- 2001 Victorian Premier's Literary Awards — Prize for Poetry, winner
- Nationality
- South Africa
- Education
- International Writing Program · University of Iowa
- Languages
- English
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Documentary basis
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wikidata · Q6247125
VALÉORINE Encyclopedia
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Institutions cited
Deutsche Nationalbibliothek
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Key facts
Key facts
• Name — John Mateer • Born — 1971 • Birthplace — John Mateer • Occupation — Poet • Awards — 2001 Victorian Premier's Literary Awards — Prize for Poetry, winner
Documentary record
John Mateer (born 1971) is described as a writer and art critic in the authority records of the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek.
Early life and education
Early life and education
He was born in Roodepoort, South Africa in 1971, and grew up on the outskirts of Johannesburg. He spent some of his childhood in Canada, before returning to South Africa in 1979. In 1989 he moved to Australia with his family. He attended the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa. Since then, he has lived in Melbourne and Perth.
Documentary record
John Mateer was born in 1971.
Literary career
Literary career
Mateer has published several collections of poems. Barefoot Speech won the 2001 C. J. Dennis Prize for Poetry and Loanwords was shortlisted for the 2002 Western Australian Premier's Book Awards. Unbelievers, or The Moor was shortlisted for the Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry, New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards, 2015. He was also a recipient of the Centenary Medal for his contributions to Australian literature. He has read his work at poetry festivals in Asia and Europe, and most recently in Japan and in Malaysia. His works have been translated into Japanese and Portuguese. Mateer was granted a fellowship to travel to Indonesia, and later published a non-fiction travelogue entitled Semar's Cave: an Indonesian Journal.
Travel
Travel
• Semar's Cave: an Indonesian Journal (2004)
Poetry collections
• Burning Swans (1994) • Anachronism (1997) • Echo (1998) • Spitting Out Seeds (1999) • Mister! Mister! Mister! (1999) • Poems (1999) • Barefoot Speech (2000) • Loanwords (2002) • The Brewery Site: Six Poems (2004) • The Ancient Capital of Images (2005) • Brian McKay (2005) • Elsewhere (2007) • Republic of the East (2008) • Southern Barbarians (2009) • Ex-White: South African Poems (2009) • The West: Australian Poems 1989–2009 (2010) • Unbelievers, or the Moor (2013) • João (2018) Giramondo
Text attribution
Licensing
Text attribution
Part of the biographical narrative on this page reuses licensed material. Its origin, revision and licence are recorded here.
The biographical narrative on this page is based on the Wikipedia article John Mateer (poet), revision 1371892694 (EN edition), by its contributors. VALÉORINE has edited that text and built its own documentary record around it. The reused material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0, and this page's reuse of it is offered under the same licence. Everything else on this page — the chronology, the holdings, the evidence, the plates and the connections — is VALÉORINE's own record. Sources and licences.
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 24 August 2026.
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