Hi, I’m Chris.

I am a Western Australian born son of Austrian emigrants. By some definitions this makes me a first generation Australian and I bring that lens and sensitivity to all my work, a lot which pivots around questions of identity.

Many emigrants face this task with varying degrees of success where one can feel suspended, like an emigrant in exile, or perhaps a nomadic emigrant, between the two worlds. English, technically, was my second language, even though I was born in Fremantle and lived my whole life until my mid-fifties in Western Australia. I am grateful for the language of Austrian (a Germanic dialect) which has opened me up to so much non-English literature and thinking including some of the Continental writers such as Paul Celan, Georg Trakl, Ingeborg Bachmann and so many more.

I consider myself, nevertheless and first and foremost, a Western Australian writer with several books of poetry and a collection of short stories published. I have had poems and short stories published in many journals and online including Westerly, Page Seventeen, Creatrix, Swamp, Axon, Island, Cordite, Honest Ulsterman, Rabbit, Azuria, Axon, writ poetry, Perigeee, Tamba, Southerly, The Mozzie and more. Several of poems have been published in the US, Ireland and China (in Chinese and English).

Along with other awards I received First Prize for the Tom Collins Poetry Award (2009 & 2018) and the Todhunter Literary Award (2012) for a short story. I am published in Best Australian Poems 2013.

My latest book of poetry Argot was published by Pomonal Publishing (2016) followed by Blind Summits, co-authored with Ross Bolleter, Sunline Press (2020). My book of short stories, The Voyeur, was published by Balboa (2021). I have completed my first novel, yet to find a home.