About

Paul A Škec (pronounced shkets) was born at Footscray Hospital overdue and late at night in late 1971. He grew up in West Sunshine (sometimes called Ardeer), the swamps that were, his childhood years were triangulated by an explosives factory, speedway and drive-in theatre… He is still unsure to this day whether having the same first name as the patron saint ov his primary school has any distortional effect on his psyche. His high school’s motto was/is “Let your Light Shine”, but in Latin, because that’s the way ov mottoes at those schools.

Work by Paul Škec has appeared in/on Perseverance Poet’s Collection 1991-92, City Writes, voiceworks, Gathering Force, Journeys to the Point (anthology), Divan (online journal), mod_piece, Micropress Oz (alias the mozzie), Australian Sea Heritage, Going Down Swinging (book #20, CD #21), Stylus Poetry Journal, poetry on paper, sane, New Writing, papertiger, hurricane, Shots from the Chamber (anthology). He has won the R.L Rankin Memorial Award for Poetry, and been shortlisted in the 1994 VICE short story competition and ‘Machine Thinking of Thinking Machines’ was shortlisted in the 2015 Ada Cambridge Prize. He has been broadcast on ABC Radio, Writers Radio 5UV, Storm the Studio 3RRR-FM, Southern FM, 3CR, and ‘Red Lobster’ (Channel 31). No stranger to the stage, Paul has sounded off at various venues including Sunday Poets at the Perseverance Hotel, Montsalvat Poetry Festival, Lame Duck Readings at the No Exit Café, Perseverance Poets, Clifton Hill Hotel, La Mama Poetica, Victorian Writer’s Centre, Smith Street Bar & Bistro, Unleashed @ The Brandon Hotel, The Spinning Room, Dan O’Connell Hotel, Barleycorn Readings, Paper Waves, Chamber Poets, Absinthe Salon, and Blame Smarty @ Tago Mago. No stranger to page layout, Paul edited Genesis, the Victoria University student Newspaper, and spent 2002-2004 editing the newsletter ov the Melbourne Poets Union, poam.

On the mundane side, Paul has worked in a wide range ov industries in the course ov his career: Advertisement Delivery, Retail Shoe Sales, Student Journalism, Newspaper and Newsletter Publishing, Recruitment Advertising, Deckhand (Steam Tug), Real Estate Advertising, Public Service (Census Data Processing Centre & Census Collector, Tax Office Call Centre), Retail Supermarkets.

‘hard drive failure’ & ‘nothing travels in a straight line’ Divan 5 (online journal) 2004.

‘dom’. mod_piece issue 9 2002.

‘caution!’ Micropress Oz (alias the mozzie), vol. 10 issue TBA 2002.

untitled haiku, mod_piece issue 8, 29 June 2002.

‘Project Victoria - an Ambitious Restoration’. Australian Sea Heritage, Number 52, Spring 1997.

‘...gifts fall nott.…’, Gathering Force, 1997, Hilltop Publications.

‘hladan’, voiceworks, Winter 1995, Express Media Power Workshops.

‘universal randomness’, (short story) won third place in the 1994 VICE short story competition.

‘Song of Hate (Skull Pome)’, Journeys to the Point, May 1994, Express Media Power Workshops.

‘null’, voiceworks, Express Media Power Workshops.

‘smoked-out blues’, City Writes, 1993, City of Melbourne.

two untitled poems, R. L. Rankin Memorial Award for Poetry, May 1993 (A $500 prize offered to students of Victoria University of Technology).

‘firedance’ & ‘night’, Perseverance Poet’s Collection 1991-92.

Other pieces have been published in magazines such as Going Down Swinging (book #20, CD #21), Stylus Poetry Journal, poetry on paper, sane, New Writing, papertiger, hurricane.

Performed/read on community radio and television stations, 3RRR-FM, Southern FM, 3CR, ‘Red Lobster’ (Channel 31), featured readings at various venues including Montsalvat Poetry Festival, Lame Duck Readings at the No Exit Café (1994), Perseverance Poets (1990-1993/4), Clifton Hill Hotel, La Mama Poetica, Victorian Writer’s Centre (1996), Smith Street Bar & Bistro (2002), Unleashed @ The Brandon Hotel (2002) The Spinning Room (2004), Dan O’Connell Hotel (2005), and I have self-published six chapbooks of poetry (the five previous print runs sold out).