Phil Brown

Phil Brown is a respected arts journalist and commentator, poet and author who has worked for all the major news outlets in Australia and internationally.

For many years he has also written wry columns about his life and the vagaries of existence with occasional references to Dumb and Dumber.

“As an author I often write about myself,” Phil says. “And, if that sounds self-indulgent, you don't know the half of it. Mind you if you read any of my memoirs - Travels with My Angst, Any Guru Will Do, The Kowloon Kid, and Confessions of a Minor Poet, all will be revealed. Existential angst reigns in all my work including my two books of poetry - Plastic Parables and An Accident in the Evening. Is that a good thing? You can be the judge of that.”

Phil is a popular presenter at festivals and events of an artistic or literary nature and is available for speaking and writing engagements. In fact, try shutting him up.

- NEW BOOK RELEASE -

Confessions of a Minor Poet by Phil Brown

'What a life. What a book. When it's not making your ribs rattle with laughter, it's making your heart ache with all the pathos and poetry. A memory box of jewels from a true Brisbane treasure.' Trent Dalton

Hilarious, heartfelt and revealing.

Phil Brown tells all (well almost all) in this rollicking account of his career in literature and journalism from The Morning Bulletin in Rockhampton to Melbourne's Sunday Age and back to The Courier-Mail in Brisbane. He shares his challenges as a young surfer foolishly yearning to be a poet and his personal struggles on the road to becoming a writer with a fluctuating passion for poetry and a top drawer full of rejection slips. There are the seminal friendships with poets Bruce Dawe and Les Murray and a cavalcade of characters from the world of arts and letters Barry Humphries, Willem Dafoe, Daniel Craig, Alain de Botton, Richard E. Grant and characters he meets (and interviews) along the way, for better and occasionally, worse.

Confessions of a Minor Poet is a hugely entertaining memoir that shows us all how the life of a writer can be frustrating, even enraging but ultimately life-enriching. This is a vital, wild and affectionate ride across Queensland, New South Wales, and Victoria, from the seventies to now.

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