Robbie Coburn

Robbie Coburn (born 25 June 1994) is an Australian poet and author.^[1]

Robbie Coburn
Born	(1994-06-25) 25 June 1994 (age 30) Melbourne, Australia
Known for	Poetry
Website	www.robbiecoburn.com

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.^[2] As a child, his mother would read him the verse of Banjo Paterson. He attended high school at Assumption College, Kilmore. When Coburn was a teenager, writer John Marsden came to his high school as a visiting author; an experience Coburn considers one of the most formative moments of his life.

He began writing poetry at the age of 14, inspired by the works of Edgar Allan Poe.

Robert Adamson, whose work Coburn discovered as a teenager, was his idol and mentor, and one of his greatest influences.^[3]

Career

Coburn is the author of the poetry collections Ghost Poetry (Upswell Publishing, 2024), And I Could Not Have Hurt You (Kiddiepunk, 2023),^[4] The Other Flesh (UWA Publishing, 2019), and Rain Season (Picaro Press, 2013). He has also published a number of chapbooks and zines.

His young adult verse novel, The Foal in the Wire, will be published by Hachette Australia in 2025.

His first published poem appeared in anarchist poet Pi O's literary journal Unusual Work when he was 17 years old.^[1] His poems have appeared in Poetry, Meanjin, Island, Westerly, Quadrant, 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,^[5] including in Modern Haiku, The Heron’s Nest, NOON: Journal of the Short Poem, tinywords, 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.^[6]

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.^[7]

He released the album Womb, a collaboration with noise artist TVISB, in 2023.^[8] His debut album of spoken word recordings I Dreamed the Night was a Horse with its Eyes Shut was released in 2024. The album title is taken from a poem by Frank Stanford.

Critical response

Robert Adamson noted that Coburn's poems “come from tough experiences, yet are created with a muscular craft that glows with alert intelligence”.^[9] 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.”^[10]

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.^[11]

Personal life

Coburn suffers from severe depression, and has struggled with alcoholism and self-harm, topics frequently explored in his work.^[12] In an interview with 3CR Melbourne, Coburn stated “I 100% believe that I would be dead without poetry.”^[13]

Bibliography

Young adult verse novels

• The Foal in the Wire. Hachette Australia. 2025. ISBN 9780734423603.

Poetry collections

• Ghost Poetry. Upswell Publishing. 2024. ISBN 9780645536898.
• And I Could Not Have Hurt You. Kiddiepunk. 2023.^[14]
• The Other Flesh. UWA Publishing. 2019. ISBN 9781760800987.
• Rain Season. Picaro Press. 2013. ISBN 9781921691652.

Anthologies (contributor)

• a hole in the light: The Red Moon Anthology of English-Language Haiku 2018. Ed. Jim Kacian. (Red Moon Press, 2019)
• To End All Wars. Ed. Dael Allison, Anna Couani, Kit Kelen, Les Wicks. (Puncher & Wattmann, 2018)
• Writing to the Wire. Ed. Dan Disney, Kit Kelen. (UWA Publishing, 2016)

List of poems

• "Mine", Quadrant, August 2020
• "Convalescence", Meanjin, October 2018
• "Shock Lessons, a Paddock Scripture", Poetry, May 2016

Discography

Studio albums

• I Dreamed the Night was a Horse with its Eyes Shut (2024)

EPs

• Horse Grave (2024)

Collaborative albums

• Womb (collaboration with TVISB) (2023)