Gregory Day is an Australian novelist, poet, and musician.
Life Gregory Day is a novelist, poet, essayist and musician based in Victoria, Australia. He is well known for novels which document generational, demographic, and environmental change on the 21st-century coast of Victoria, Australia. He has been much acclaimed for his musical compositions and field recordings, notably his settings and singing of the poetry of William Butler Yeats on the album The Black Tower, and his project The Flash Road, which narrates in song the building of the Great Ocean Road in southwest Victoria in the years following The Great War. Day is also the co-founder with artist and book designer, Sian Marlow, of the fine press limited edition literature and music publisher, Merrijig Word & Sound Co.
Awards and nominations
Commonwealth Writers' Prize, South East Asia and South Pacific Region, Best First Book, 2006: The Patron Saint of Eels — shortlisted ALS Gold Medal, 2006: The Patron Saint of Eels — winner New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards, Christina Stead Prize for Fiction, 2008: Ron McCoy's Sea of Diamonds: A Novel — shortlisted Elizabeth Jolley Short Story Prize, 2011: The Neighbour's Beans — winner Manly Artist Book Award, 2017: A Smile at Arm's Length — winner Tasmanian Literary Award, Tasmania Book Prize, 2017: Archipelago of Souls — shortlisted Nature Conservancy, Australia Nature Writing Prize, 2019: Summer On The Painkalac — shortlisted Miles Franklin Award, 2019: A Sand Archive — shortlisted Patrick White Award, 2020 — winner Nature Conservancy Australia Nature Writing Prize, 2021 – winner Miles Franklin Award, 2024: The Bell of the World – shortlisted Blake Poetry Prize, 2026: The Church Was Strangely Empty But The Day Outside Was Full — longlisted
Bibliography
Novels The Patron Saint of Eels (2005) Ron McCoy's Sea of Diamonds (2007) The Grand Hotel (2010) Archipelago of Souls (2015) A Sand Archive (2018) The Bell of the World (2023)
Essays Words Are Eagles: Selected Writings on the Nature and Language of Place (2022)
Artist Books visitors - with Jiri Tibor Novak (2012) A Smile At Arm's Length — with Jiri Tibor Novak (2016)
Poetry Six Different Ways (1999) — with Kieran Carroll and Michael Farrell etc. Trace (in collaboration with photographer Robert Ashton) (2003) A Smile At Arm's Length (2016) Southsightedness (2025)
Music Untitled Red: No Evangelism (1992) Barroworn: Mangowak Days (1995) The Black Tower: Songs From The Poetry of W. B. Yeats (1998) Trace soundtrack with Silver Ray (2003) The Flash Road: Scenes From The Building Of The Great Ocean Road (2005) The Ampliphones: Emotional Patterns of a New Climate (2015) ‘’O’ To The Bough Of The Blackwood Tree: Retrospective album’’ (2026)
Interviews & Presentations "ABC Radio National Books and Arts" July 2015 "ABC Radio National Book Show" - 21 May 2008 "Paperbark Words on The Bell Of The World" July 2024 "Towards An Ethics Of Receptivity: Reading Gregory Day's The Bell Of The World - Séminaire n°1 - Université Grenoble Alpes - Peter Mathews (University of Macau) 15/10/2024" "The Leaf Bookshop Interview with Gregory Day on Southsightedness - 30 Authors in 30 Days March 2025" "ABC Radio National - The Music Show's Andrew Ford interviews Gregory Day about Southsightedness"
References