Essays on Peter Skrzynecki

April 6, 1945 (age 77)

Peter Skrzynecki is an Australian poet of Polish and Ukrainian origin. He was born in 1945 in Germany and came to Australia in 1949. He has published fifteen books of poetry and prose and won several awards including the Grace Leven Poetry Prize and the Henry Lawson Short Story Award

Immigrant Chronicle (1975), The Aviary (1978), The Beloved Mountain (1988), The Cry of the Goldfinch (1996), The Sparrow Garden (2004)

Immigrant Chronicle is a collection of poems by Peter Skrzynecki, remembering the experiences of his family as they immigrated from post-war Poland to Australia. The family, Peter Skrzynecki and his two parents, were in transit for over two years from 1949–51 (either physically travelling, or in a migrant hostel) before they were allowed to begin their new life in Australia. The book also expounds the ongoing hardships that Skrzynecki and his parents still suffer because of their journey to Australia.

Australian poet Peter Skrzynecki writes about his experiences teaching in NSW, his migrant upbringing in suburban Sydney and his attempts to assimilate, ‘fit in’ and overcome the challenges of a new life in a new land.

"Keep up with men who strode through strange hills as if their migration had still not come to and end."
"We became citizens of the soil that was feeding us"
"Though I've lived in Australia for fifty-five years I sometimes still feel out of place - having become the traveller who doesn't want to return after he makes a trip to Europe."