Norman Talbot gained his BA from Durham and his PhD (in American Literature) from Leeds. He migrated to Australia with his wife Jean Talbot (q.v.) to take up a university lectureship in English at the University of Newcastle. In 1963 he and a group of fellow poets founded the small independent press Nimrod Publications, of which Talbot took control in 1965. The press published over four hundred writers from the Hunter Valley, in nearly forty books.
Retiring voluntarily from his position as Associate Professor of English in 1993, Talbot became a full-time writer and literary consultant. He published four new verse collections, and wrote two prose fantasies and several stories during the last decade of his life. Gwen Harwood (q.v.), in her Introduction to Four Zoas of Australia, wrote that 'the haiku he [Talbot] has made his own.' Harwood regarded him as 'the most versatile poet writing in Australia.'
Talbot also expanded his Nimrod Literary Consultancy and was involved with Catchfire Press in various capacities, becoming President in April 2002. In 2003 he was awarded Honorary Life Membership of Poetry at the Pub (Newcastle) Inc. for his valuable contribtions to the organisation. In addition to his poetry and fiction writing, Talbot also published several works with Babel Handbooks including guides to spelling and to poetic terms.
