I had the pleasure last night of launching The Special by David Stavanger, winner of the 2013 Thomas Shapcott Prize. The book is published by UQP and available now. David and I didn't know each other beforehand, but connected through words (in emails, but mainly through our work) and it was a wonderful night, with much warmth. … Continue reading Bodies, effort, straws: The Special by David Stavanger
poets
Writing death: Walter Mason interviews Jeremy Fernando
Writing Death by Jeremy Fernando (available here) by Walter Mason Jeremy Fernando is a Singaporean poet, writer, philosopher and critic, and his latest book, Writing Death, is an almost-perfect combination of these vocations. Recently described in a Singaporean magazine as 'Asia’s Sexiest Philosopher', Fernando’s erudition and grasp of theory are balanced by a playful approach … Continue reading Writing death: Walter Mason interviews Jeremy Fernando
Guest review: Greg Westenberg on The Geometry of Flight by Angela Smith
Pulse Publications, 2010, 9780646540443 In naming her poetry collection The Geometry of Flight Angela Smith, like Indiana Jones in The Last Crusade, ‘chose wisely’. More wisely, more selflessly, than perhaps she realised. She has given multiple doorways to her work with the single phrase: porticos that set the reader’s path through the work, paths that … Continue reading Guest review: Greg Westenberg on The Geometry of Flight by Angela Smith
Ashes in the Air by Ali Alizadeh
This review first appeared in the March 2011 issue of Bookseller+Publisher magazine. UQP, March 2011 (Aus) 9780702238727 What do we want from a book of poetry? We want each poem to paint a picture, to shake us up a little, and to ultimately reach down inside us and peel something back. Ali Alizadeh’s poems do all … Continue reading Ashes in the Air by Ali Alizadeh
Guest review: Greg Westenberg on John Mateer’s The West: Australian Poems 1989–2009
Fremantle Press, 2010 (Aus, US, UK) 9781921361869 Remember that Renaissance sculpture you admired, briefly, in a Roman or Florentine church, cool and hard and chiselled and, perhaps a little too dramatically posed? Reading John Mateer’s collection of poems The West, gives an analogous sensation. The sculptors worked in marble that kept its material nature, the hardness … Continue reading Guest review: Greg Westenberg on John Mateer’s The West: Australian Poems 1989–2009
Guest review: Derek Motion on Tiggy Johnson’s First Taste
Page Seventeen, 2010 9780980813609 Reviewed by Derek Motion I often have to catch the bus out to the university, and from the stop near my house the journey takes around 15 minutes. This parcel of time is – if you get straight on to the task and don’t waste any time looking out the window … Continue reading Guest review: Derek Motion on Tiggy Johnson’s First Taste
Queensland Poetry Festival special: Elizabeth Bachinsky
The Queensland Poetry Festival runs from 21 to 23 August. Graham Nunn has helped me to select three poets to feature on LiteraryMinded in the weeks leading up to the festival. Revisit number one, A.F. Harrold; or number two, Hinemoana Baker, if you like. Enjoy! Elizabeth Bachinsky is the author of three collections of poetry, Curio … Continue reading Queensland Poetry Festival special: Elizabeth Bachinsky
I'd Like to Introduce You to Two of My Favourite Poets
Sean M Whelan's and Nathan Curnow's poems are very different in both style and theme, but come from much the same place. Nathan captures the poignancy of childhood and the wonderment of parenthood, nostalgia and love in his chapbook No Other Life But This through tiny observations - an arm through a sleeve, a question, a coffee … Continue reading I'd Like to Introduce You to Two of My Favourite Poets
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