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Don
Defenderfer

Don Defenderfer is a native of San Francisco who once went on a holiday to Alaska where he met an Australian who told him to visit Tasmania. So he did, and while here he met a woman. That was 40 years ago. He was state coordinator for Landcare for many years, a job that allowed him to be inspired by not only the beauty of the Tasmanian landscape but by the many people that are trying to repair and renew it. He has a Masters Degree in Social Ecology and a Bachelor of Environmental Studies with a minor in writing. He has published three volumes of poetry, and his work has appeared in newspapers and periodicals, including The New York Times and The Australian. Two volumes of collected essays and poems, "Tasmania: An island dream" Parts 1 and 2, can be bought through the Forty South Bookshop.


Don Defenderfer is a native of San Francisco who once went on a holiday to Alaska where he met an Australian who told him to visit Tasmania. So he did, and while here he met a woman. That was 40 years ago. He was state coordinator for Landcare for many years, a job that allowed him to be inspired by not only the beauty of the Tasmanian landscape but by the many people that are trying to repair and renew it. He has a Masters Degree in Social Ecology and a Bachelor of Environmental Studies with a minor in writing. He has published three volumes of poetry, and his work has appeared in newspapers and periodicals, including The New York Times and The Australian. Two volumes of collected essays and poems, "Tasmania: An island dream" Parts 1 and 2, can be bought through the Forty South Bookshop.


Poet's Corner

Who will teach me?

by Don Defenderfer
05 Apr 2025

Who will teach me how to sing? How to hear the voices in the streams? ...

Poet's Corner

Sisters and Brothers

by Don Defenderfer
22 Sep 2024

The hopes of a generation drowning in despair ...

Wilderness

Wandering, wondering

by Don Defenderfer
11 Feb 2024

Which of the three capes is your favourite: Cape Raoul, Cape Pillar or Cape Hauy?

Forty South

Question 7, by Richard Flanagan: A love note from Tasmania’s greatest nature writer

by Don Defenderfer
14 Jan 2024

I was asked recently who I thought was the greatest nature writer in Tasmania ...

SEE MORE
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