Philip Hodgins

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Philip Hodgins (1959-1995) was an Australian poet.

Philip Hodgins was born in Shepparton, Victoria, in 1959 and spent his childhood on his parent's dairy farm at nearby Katandra West. He went to school in Geelong and later moved to Melbourne where he worked for several years with a publishing house and then lived in Maryborough in central Victoria.

His experience of farm life is strongly present through much of his poetry. His verse novella Dispossessed describe the last weeks of a poor rural family about to be evicted from their farm. Hodgins also wrote about Australian Rules football.

In November 1983 Hodgins was admitted to hospital and diagnosed as having chronic myeloid leukaemia, a cancer of the blood and bone marrow. His experiences as a leukaemia patient forms the subject of much of his later work.

Hodgins was married to the writer Janet Shaw, with whom he had two children, Anna and Helen.

There is a photo of Philip Hodgins online here: http://nla.gov.au/nla.pic-an14466001-1

[edit] Publications

• Blood and Bone (1986)
• Down the Lake with Half a Chook (1988)
• Animal Warmth (1990)
• The End of the Season (1993)
• Up On All Fours (1993)
• Dispossessed (1994)
• Things Happen (1995)
• Selected Poems (1997)