Born and raised in the Hunter Valley, Glenn Stuart Beatty has had a passion for writing and words from a young age.
After leaving school, Glenn worked in the steel industry for a time, as many around the Hunter Valley did – however he realised that it was his passion for books that was his true love.
It didn’t take him long to swap life in a steel mill for life in the halls of academia – choosing to study an Arts Degree at the University of Newcastle majoring in English and Drama, where he also developed his passion for the theatre as an actor, director and lighting designer – ‘making magic out of darkness’ he once described it.
Glenn later went on to complete a Master of Letters in Cultural Studies where he explored the use of the language of literary criticism to describe the built environment.
Glenn tries to approach his writing with discipline, using words to describe a world that isn’t always simple.
Ideas can come from almost anywhere – a snatch of a conversation, something glimpsed for a second or an always-present past. Glenn also has a passion for photography as another way to capture his fascination with the world, its many colours and moods.
Over a lifetime, Glenn has worked in a number of different careers from student politics, arts administration, human resources and training, senior management roles in the public service and more recently in change management. Throughout all of this, his passion for writing has only grown.
Glenn has been fortunate to visit a number of different countries and has found inspiration for his work in many places from the Arctic Circle and the Highlands and Islands of Scotland to the deserts of New Mexico or the back streets of Santiago and Buenos Aires.
“One of my most rewarding moments as a writer was getting the opportunity to read a set of poems in a studio just off Times Square in New York City – it was a standout moment for me.”
In 1991, Glenn Stuart Beatty published his first book of poetry, The Saxophone Injuries and Other Poems (Harrison & Jameson ISBN 0 646 06119 4).
His poetry has been published in a number of journals including Red Lamp and has been included in the anthologies Visions from the Valley and Brew as well as a collection, Completion Crowns the Work with a small group of other Newcastle poets.
He has also been involved in Newcastle’s Poetry at the Pub for over thirty years and has been the featured poet on a number of occasions and edited the Poetry at the Pub anthologies The Wind Over Moon Marked Skies and Listening to What the Land Has to Say.
Glenn’s play And Who Was Crushed by the Little Fidget Wheels was produced by Mission Theatre and his adaptation of Ibsen’s Peer Gynt was produced by Freewheels Theatre.
His first novel, A Long The River Run was published in 2022.
The ghosts come to him, at night, appearing in the room that was darker than the darkest mine shaft, as black as the top of
I find, more and more, these days that I am reading books by older (or, let’s face it – old) men. There was a time
The Fisherman Fugues Fugue 1 I think the old people still walk along the shoreline here, listening to the gentle lap lap of the wavelets
One of the reasons I went to Dublin was to undertake a Joycean pilgrimage and one of the places high on my list to visit
The White Horse Tavern It began at the end. Between Christmas and New Year, I was in New York City for a couple of nights
This poem, written a couple of years ago, invokes my Primary School Christmas parties held in the heat of an Australian summer. There were no
