Poets

Tom Petsinis was born in Macedonia and immigrated to Australia as a child. He studied mathematics at the University of Melbourne and lectured at Victoria University for many years. He has explored mathematics and its history in several novels, plays and collections of poetry.

Tom’s literary work comprises ten books of poetry, including Four Quarters, which won the Wesley Michel Wright Poetry Prize, and more recently Steles, isolation and Zero’s Whisper. His plays include Salonika Bound, Hypatia’s Circle, Zorba’s Last Dance and The Drought, recipient of the Wal Cherry Award and short-listed for the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award. His best-known works of fiction are the novels The Twelfth Dialogue and The French Mathematician, the latter nominated for both the New South Wales and South Australian Premier’s Award. His most recent novels are Fitzroy Raw and its sequel Fog, both of which draw on the immigrant experience in what was the working-class suburb of Fitzroy in Melbourne.

Tom’s work has been translated into a number of languages. He is currently a mathematics coordinator at Deakin University in Melbourne.