K.F. Pearson




Published Titles : Messages of Things
The History of Colour
The Apparition’s Daybook
Mosaics & Mirrors; Composite Poems
Passion & War
Melbourne Elegies
The Apparition At Large

K.F. (Kevin) Pearson was born in Caulfield, Melbourne in 1946, and grew up on the working class side of the Racecourse. He has survived fire, lightning and gunshots, the last whilst head gardener at Koonunga Golf Course. He has been a steel tier in the building industry, once established a crosswords company and has worked in printing and as a publisher. He has also been an art critic, journalist, editor and anthologist. He returned to his ‘grey city’ of Melbourne after eighteen years away, including in the South Pacific and Adelaide. Black Pepper was founded in late 1994 by K.F. Pearson and Gail Hannah, initially in conjunction with Australian Scholarly Publishing. It is now an established and truly independent small publisher which has made a significant mark on Australian literature.

K.F. Pearson’s books include:
Friendly Street Poetry Reader No. 5, (with Nancy Gordon)
Messages of Things (Friendly Street Poets, 1984)
The Orange Tree: South Australian Poetry to the Present Day (co-editor with Christine Churches) (Wakefield Press, 1986)
The Penguin Book of Christmas Poems (co-editor with Chris Mooney) (Penguin, 1992)
The History of Colour (Angus and Robertson, 1992)
The Heights of Macchu Picchu by Pablo Neruda (translator, Mattoid, 1992)
Mosaics & Mirrors; Composite Poems (with Jennifer Harrison and Graham Henderson)
Passion & War, A Flamenco Libretto, incorporating his translations from the Spanish
The Apparition’s Daybook
Melbourne Elegies, being an adaptation and extension of Goethe’s Römische Elegien.
The Apparition at Large

He has received two writing grants from the Australia Council, as well as grants from Arts Victoria and Arts South Australia.

Kevin Pearson’s elegant poetry spills from a cornucopia of pictures and ideas. One experiences not a tug at the heart-strings but a colourful mind at work. It is sheer joy.



Rosemary O’Grady The Advertiser, 4 July 1987





Kevin reading at the Dan, 25 February 2017
Photo: Joe Dolce - Backdrop: lyn Van Hek

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