Robbie Coburn
Born (1994-06-25) 25 June 1994
Melbourne, Australia
Known forPoetry
Websitewww.robbiecoburn.com

Robbie Coburn is a contemporary Australian poet. Judith Beveridge wrote that Coburn’s work “is so raw yet so luminous and piercing to the point where the poetry is utterly transformative”.

Early life and education

Born in Melbourne in 1994, Robbie Coburn grew up on his family's farm in Woodstock, Victoria, the son of a horse trainer.[1]

He began writing poetry at the age of 14, inspired by the works of Edgar Allan Poe. He was also greatly influenced by Sylvia Plath, Arthur Rimbaud, Antonin Artaud, Bob Dylan, Sam Shepard, Allen Ginsberg, Philip Larkin, and William Shakespeare.

Australian poet Robert Adamson, whose work Coburn discovered as a teenager, was his idol and mentor, and one of his greatest influences.

Career

Coburn is the author of the poetry collections Ghost Poetry (Upswell Publishing, 2024), And I Could Not Have Hurt You (Kiddiepunk, 2023),[2] The Other Flesh (UWA Publishing, 2019), and Rain Season (Picaro Press, 2013). He has also published a number of chapbooks and zines.

His first published poem appeared in anarchist poet Pi O's literary journal Unusual Work when he was 17 years old.[3] His poems have appeared in Poetry, Meanjin, Island, Westerly, and elsewhere. His poems have also been published in anthologies, including Writing to the Wire (UWA Publishing, 2016) and To End All Wars (Puncher & Wattmann, 2018).

Additionally, Coburn’s haiku has been published widely,[4] including in Modern Haiku, The Heron’s Nest, NOON: Journal of the Short Poem, Frogpond (the journal of the Haiku Society of America), and Blithe Spirit (the journal of the British Haiku Society). His work was selected for inclusion in a hole in the light: The Red Moon Anthology of English-Language Haiku 2018, edited by Jim Kacian.[5]

Coburn has given featured readings at The Wheeler Centre and La Mama Poetica and has appeared as a guest at literary festivals such as the Sydney Writers' Festival, Canberra Writers Festival, Newcastle Writers Festival and Perth Poetry Festival.

He has also run poetry workshops for youth mental health organisation headspace.

In 2021, Coburn published "Home for the Rodeo", an essay detailing his struggles with alcoholism, depression, and self-harm, and his love of the sport of rodeo.[6]

He released the album Womb, a collaboration with noise artist TVISB, in 2023.[7]

Critical response

Coburn’s poetry is known for its highly personal, sometimes confronting nature, as well as his use of evocative, visceral imagery relating to the human body, always executed using a carefully refined poetic craft. Judith Beveridge wrote that his poetry “is so much of the body but of the soul too which makes it remarkable”. Robert Adamson noted that Coburn’s poems “come from tough experiences, yet are created with a muscular craft that glows with alert intelligence”.[8] Due to its openness in dealing with personal themes such as mental illness, trauma, addiction, self-harm and suicide, Coburn’s work has often been categorised as confessional poetry. Sarah Holland-Batt wrote that Coburn’s “raw and intimate poems are marked by a strong presence of voice: confessional, consolatory, despairing, and defiant” and that his poems “speak of impulses that are often repressed or left unsaid.”[9]

His work is also known for using imagery related to his upbringing on his family’s farm, horses and rodeo. Les Wicks called Coburn “the best portraitist of Australian rural life since Brendan Ryan.[10]

Personal life

Coburn suffers from severe depression, and has struggled with alcoholism and self-harm, topics frequently explored in his work.[11]

His favourite books and films are those in the Western Horror cross-genre, which he refers to as “horror horse operas”. He is an avid fan of the sport of Rodeo and Country music. Coburn is a lifelong fan of singer-songwriter Bob Dylan and the comic book hero Batman.

Bibliography

Poetry

Collections
  • Ghost Poetry. Upswell Publishing. 2024. ISBN 9780645536898.
  • And I Could Not Have Hurt You. Kiddiepunk. 2023.[12]
  • The Other Flesh. UWA Publishing. 2019. ISBN 9781760800987.
  • Rain Season. Picaro Press. 2013. ISBN 9781921691652.
List of poems

Plays

  • Womb: A Poem in Dramatic Form. Pale Ghoul Recordings. 2023.

Discography

Collaborative albums

  • Womb (collaboration with TVISB) (2023)

References

  1. ↑ , Overland Emerging poet series: Robbie Coburn, 2 July 2023
  2. ↑ , DC’s: Please welcome to the world … Robbie Coburn And I Could Not Have Hurt You (Kiddiepunk), 7 December 2023
  3. ↑ , AustLit: The Australian Literature Resource, 19 May 2014
  4. ↑ , Australian Haiku Society: selection and comments by Simon Hanson on Robbie Coburn’s work, 2 July 2023
  5. ↑ , The Haiku Foundation, 2 July 2023
  6. ↑ , Home for the Rodeo by Robbie Coburn, 27 October 2021
  7. ↑ , Review of ‘Womb’ in Devil’s Horns Zine, 3 October 2023
  8. ↑ , UWA Publishing, 2 July 2023
  9. ↑ , Ghost Poetry, 3 October 2023
  10. ↑ , Horrors and Hay: Les Wicks Reviews ‘Rain Season’ by Robbie Coburn, 13 December 2023
  11. ↑ , Dirty Laundry: The Art of Confessional Writing, Meanjin, 2 July 2023
  12. ↑ , And I Could Not Have Hurt You, 7 December 2023
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