Harley remembers Tranter as an “erudite and generous man. The Extension 1 boys were in awe of him – his knowledge of modern culture was immense – and they couldn’t believe that the person who wrote The Floor of Heaven was standing in front of them, ready to answer their HSC questions. Tranter, in turn, loved passing on his knowledge, and sensed that the boys were lapping up everything he had to say – about avant-garde poetry, about French cinema, about structuralism and poststructuralism. It was a dynamic he relished.”
In addition to writing such poetry classics as Parallax and Other Poems (1970), The Alphabet Murders (1976), Under Berlin (1988), At the Florida (1993), and Starlight: 150 Poems (2010), Tranter edited The New Australian Poetry (1979) and co-edited The Penguin Anthology of Modern Australian Poetry (1991). He was also at the vanguard of the digital revolution in poetry, curating 40 issues of the free online journal Jacket between 1997 and 2010. His loss will be keenly felt, especially by those who had the privilege of learning from him.
Pictured: John Tranter with boys from the 2018 Extension 1 English class
