VALE: Alec Choate


Noted Western Australian poet Alec Choate passed away on 2 August. Alec’s first volume, Gifts Upon the Water, was published by Fremantle Press in 1978, one of the earliest titles in the West Coast Writing series promoted by the Press.

Three further collections followed under the Fremantle Press imprint: A Marking of Fire (1978), winner of a Western Australia Week Literary Award in that year, School Girls at Borobudur (1990) and Mind in Need of a Desert (1995). Alec’s last collection, The Wheels of Hama – Collected War Poems (Victor Publishing) won the poetry section of the Western Australian Premier’s book Awards in 1997. His poems appeared in Australian journals and anthologies, were broadcast on ABC radio, and earned wide praise throughout a long and distinguished career.

Board members and staff at Fremantle Press offer their condolences to Alec’s family.



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