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The life and work of West Australian poet and novelist Randolph Stow will be celebrated at a memorial service to be held at The University of Western Australia later this month.

A UWA Arts graduate, Stow died at his home in Essex, England at the end of May aged 74.  Born in Geraldton and educated at Geraldton High School and Guildford Grammar School, Stow graduated in 1956 with majors in English and French.

His best known work is The Merry-Go-Round in the Sea , a semi-autobiographical novel published in 1956 about growing up around Geraldton in the 1940s.

Stow won the Miles Franklin Award in 1958 for his novel To the Islands , which explored relations between indigenous and white Australians based on his experience at an Anglican mission in the north-west of WA.

He occasionally lectured in English literature at Australian and British universities and lived in England for more than 40 years, visiting Australia only once in 1974 when he won a Whitlam government fellowship.

The memorial service will include a welcome by Winthrop Professor Dennis Haskell, of UWA's School of English and Cultural Studies, who with literary historian William Grono, also wrote an obituary on Stow.

Family, friends, musicians and actors will give readings from Stow's works, perform songs and speak about his life at the service, to be held in Winthrop Hall from 5.30pm to 7.30pm on Tuesday, August 24.

Media references

Megan O'Connor (School of Social and Cultural Studies)  (+61 8)  6488 2063
Janine MacDonald (UWA Public Affairs)  (+61 8)  6488 5563  /  (+61 4) 32 637 716