AustLit

Alan Wearne was born and educated in Melbourne, obtaining a BA in history from La Trobe University. He has been involved in the Australian poetry scene since the late 1960s and was included in John Tranter's The New Australian Poetry (1979).

Wearne published two small collections of poems in the 1970s, but attracted wide attention in 1986 when his verse novel The Nightmarkets won several awards, including the NBC Banjo Award. The history of Australia and particularly Melbourne between 1960 and 1980 is told through a series of dramatic monologues dominated by the public servant and so-called investigative journalist Ian Metcalf. Metcalf's monologues are destabilised by others like Terri the prostitute and this, combined with a strong sense of place and history, has seen Nightmarkets likened to James Joyce's Ulysses. Wearne followed this success with another verse novel The Lovemakers (2001). Numerous excerpts from Wearne's verse novels appeared in journals such as Heat, Meanjin and Scripsi before their publication in novel form.

Wearne is a regular contributor to Australian newspapers, has taught in the Faculty of Creative Arts at the University of Wollongong and has written a satirical novel about Australian Rules football, Kicking in Danger (1997). He teaches for six months of the year at Curtin University. His writing has been supported by many fellowships from the Australia Council.