Thomas William ShapcottAO (born 21 March 1935)[1] is an Australian poet, novelist, playwright, editor, librettist, short story writer and teacher.
Biography
Thomas William Shapcott[2] was born in
Ipswich, Queensland, and attended the
Ipswich Grammar School with his twin brother, who was born on the previous day (20 March 1935). (The writer is left-handed, but his twin is right-handed.) He left school at 15 to work in his father's accountancy business, but completed an accountancy degree in 1961. In 1967 he graduated in arts from the
University of Queensland.[3]
His first artistic impulse was to be a composer. By age 19, he had written a number of works, but he turned away from music when he discovered a string quartet he had written unconsciously plagiarised a chamber work by
Ernest Bloch.[4] He then worked as a tax accountant, a profession that he pursued for 27 years.
He was director of the
Australia Council's Literature Board for seven years, and Executive Director of the National Book Council (1992–97). He was Professor of Creative Writing at the
University of Adelaide.[5]
He has written 15 collections of poetry and 6 novels.