The Walnut Tree

Tim Slade's debut poetry collection, The Walnut Tree, draws its imagery from the Australian bush and the everyday life of its suburbs. Cricket, music, mountain biking, snakes, echidnas and extinctions all appear among its subjects.

The poems look at how social and industrial surroundings affect bodies, minds and other living species. Slade often takes a playful tone when he engages with the work of Les Murray and Clive James. He also responds sincerely to Indigenous culture and to Country.

Slade's poems have appeared in The Weekend Australian, The Koori Mail, the Australian Poetry Anthology, Growing Up Disabled In Australia and Cordite Poetry Review. His writing has received recognition from the Margaret Reid International Poetry Prize, the Janice Bostock Haiku Award, the Australian Cricket Poetry Prize and the Henry Lawson Festival Award.