POET Thomas Shapcott accepted an invitation to attend the official naming ceremony for the Judith Rodriguez AM and Thomas Shapcott AO Hall at the Australian Cultural Library in Rosewood.
Treasurer and Secretary of the Australian Cultural Library Vanessa Glen said that the hall contains tens of thousands of print and audio materials including the personal Australian library of Judith and Thomas.
“Thomas was born in Ipswich and became an internationally renowned poet and literary figure,” she said.
“For seven years, he was the director of the Australia Council’s Literature Board and the major Queensland poetry award is named in his honour.
“Judith also grew up in Queensland and was hugely influential as a writer in Australia and abroad.
“She was an editor of the literary journal ‘Meanjin’ and held academic appointments in several institutions.”
Judith died in November 2018, shortly after having arranged the donation of her and Thomas’ personal library to the Australian Cultural Library.
“With the cancellation of this year’s Ipswich City Council poetry award breakfast, it seems only too fortunate and fitting to honour the life achievements of these two poets and to pay our respects to the arts in Australia,” Vanessa said.
“The library also received four large boxes of books, videos and audio cassettes from Zoe Rodriguez who is Judith’s daughter.
“These valued parts of history contain interviews with Judith and poetry readings, which we aim to convert to digital.”
