Peter Michael Skrzynecki OAM, (Polish pronunciation: [ˈskʂɨnɛtski]; born 6 April 1945 in Germany) is an Australian poet of Polish/Ukrainian origin.[1]
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Skrzynecki came to Australia with his parents in 1949, as a refugee from "the sorrow / Of northern wars" ("Crossing the Red Sea"). This voyage – a four-week-long sea expedition on the General Blatchford, a converted United States Navy transport ship, was the basis for many of the poems in his 1975 collection, Immigrant Chronicle.
He holds a Bachelor of Arts from the University of New England, and a Teachers Certificate from the Sydney Teachers College.
Skrzynecki has taught various courses relating to literature, including English Studies, American Literature, Australian Literature and Creative Writing. He has received several awards for his contributions to Australian and multicultural literature, including the Grace Leven Prize for Poetry in 1972 for Headwaters, the Captain Cook Bicentenary Poetry Prize, the Henry Lawson Short Story Award, an Order of Cultural Merit from the Polish government in 1989 and in 2002, an Order of Australia.[2] Skrzynecki visits schools and gives lectures on the current topic area of Immigrant Chronicle.
Immigrant Chronicle, is a range of poems by Peter Skrzynecki, remembering the experiences of his family as they immigrated from post-war Poland to Australia. The family, Peter Skrzynecki and his two parents, were in transit for over two years from 1949–51 (either physically travelling, or in a migrant hostel) before they were allowed to begin their new life in Australia. The book also expounds the ongoing hardships that Skrzynecki and his parents still suffer because of their journey to Australia. Immigrant Chronicle was one of the five prescribed "Physical Journeys" texts in the compulsory New South Wales HSC English syllabus, and is now a prescribed poetry text for "Area of Study: Belonging" for 2009–14. This core text is the main focus of the unit, and it requires students to find their own related text(s) and compare the texts in the form of an essay (suggested duration of forty minutes).[3]
Among the 48 poems included in Immigrant Chronicle are: