Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Ashbery's translation of Rimbaud's 'Illuminations'


Modern French poets Paul Verlaine and Arthur Rimbaud have made an enormous influence on Western literature - their tangled lives as much as their poetry. Translating these two has been a major challenge for many poets of the past, but now two contemporary poets have produced new translations of classics by them both.

Read about these translations in this short review from the Wall Street Journal at http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303936704576400024210942518.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

This from Criticism &c. at http://criticismetc.wordpress.com/2011/01/05/a-new-translation-of-rimbauds-illuminations/

January 5, 2011
A New Translation of Rimbaud’s Illuminations

W.W. Norton will publish a new translation of Rimbaud’s Illuminations by the poet John Ashbery in April. The New York Review of Books features one of them, Tale, in its current issue (January 13, 2011).

In the interest of textual comparison, I have reproduced below the first paragraph of Ashbery’s translation, followed by that of Louise Varèse, from the revised New Directions edition of 1957.

···

From Rimbaud’s Tale

A Prince was annoyed at always being occupied with perfecting vulgar generosities. He foresaw amazing revolutions in love, and suspected that his wives could come up with something better than complacency adorned with sky and luxury. He wished to see the truth, the hour of essential desire and satisfaction. Whether or not this was an aberration of piety, he wanted it. He possessed at the very least a rather broad human power.

(John Ashbery)

···

A Prince was vexed at having devoted himself only to the perfection of ordinary generosities. He foresaw astonishing revolutions of love and suspected his women of being able to do better than their habitual acquiescence embellished by heaven and luxury. He wanted to see the truth, the hour of essential desire and gratification. Whether this was an aberration of piety or not, that is what he wanted. Enough worldly power, at least, he had.

(Louise Varèse)

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Night Songs, by Thomas Kinsella




1

Now, as I sink in sleep,
My heart is cut down,
Nothing—poetry nor love—
Achieving.

*

Turns again in my room,
The crippled leopard.
Paw-pad, configured
Yellow light of his eyes,
Pass, repass, repass.
Quiet, my hand; he is tame.
Soon, while I dream, will step
And stir the sunken dawn.

2

Before I woke there entered in
A woman with a golden skin
That tangled with the light.
A tang of orchards climbed the stair
And dwindled in the waxen air,
Crisping the midnight,
And the white pillows of my bed
On apple-tasted darkness fed.
Weakened with appetite
Sleep broke like a dish wherein
A woman lay with golden skin.

...

More poems on the same theme and a chance to sign up for a Poem A Day at http://mail.google.com/mail/?hl=en&tab=wm#inbox/130d68e6dbd475ee

First Drafts: Gary Soto's 'Talking to Myself' and 'Sunday Without Clouds'


Well, I've always valued other poets' drafts. It is intriguing to see how they go about their business. When I started out, I thought the poems came easily out of the blue into the poet's mind and cleanly on to the page. Not so. Some of my poems have indeed come that easily - but they are the extreme minority! So, take a look here at these, then track some more down. If you pay good attention to them, you can see why and what the poet does. http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2011/06/first-drafts-gary-sotos-talking-to-myself-and-sunday-without-clouds/241077/

Monday, June 27, 2011

2011 WA Poets Inc.I Song Lyric Contest




First prize is a voucher worth $150 redeemable at Crow Books

The WAPI Song Lyric Contest is part of the 2011 WA Poetry Festival and is coordinated by WA Poets Inc. (WAPI) at their discretion. A panel with considerable experience in music and poetry will be responsible for judging entries. All entries will be judged anonymously. The names of the Judging Panel will not be revealed to entrants until the presentation of the awards.

The first prize is a voucher worth $150 redeemable at Crow Books, 900 Albany Highway, East Victoria Park. Second and third prizes may be awarded at the discretion of the Judging Panel and will consist of books and other publications donated by other sponsors of the Festival.

The WAPI Song Lyric Contest is open to writers from anywhere and is subject to a fee of $6 per entry, an entry consisting of one song lyric.

The contest is for song lyrics only—music is not required.

Entry Form and all that jazz at http://www.wapoets.net.au/pages/festival/2011/songlyriccontest.html

The deadline for entries is midnight Western Australian time 15th July 2011. Prizes will be awarded at the Presentation Evening at City Farm, 1 City Farm Place, East Perth on Friday 2nd September commencing at 7pm.

Announcing the Peter Porter Poetry Prize



Entry to the eighth annual Australian Book Review poetry prize – renamed the Peter Porter Poetry Prize, in memory of the late Australian poet – is now open.

First prize: $4000
Shortlisted poems: $250
Closing date: 21 November 2011


Judges: Judith Beveridge and David McCooey


The Peter Porter Poetry Prize is one of Australia’s most lucrative and respected awards for poetry, and guarantees winners wide exposure through publication in ABR.

ENTRY FORM, INCLUDING GUIDELINES http://www.australianbookreview.com.au/files/Forms/PPPP_entry_form_2012.pdf


MEDIA RELEASE http://www.australianbookreview.com.au/files/Forms/PPPP_Media_Release_2012.pdf


PREVIOUS WINNERS


Stephen Edgar (2005)
Judith Bishop (2006)
Alex Skovron (2007)
Ross Clark (2008)
Tracy Ryan (2009)
Anthony Lawrence (2010)
Judith Bishop (2011) and Tony Lintermans (2011)

Poets must reside in Australia or be Australian citizens living overseas. Each entry must be a single poem of no more than 100 lines. Multiple entries are permitted, and all poems will be judged anonymously. A shortlist comprising a maximum of six poems will be announced and those poems published in the March 2012 issue of ABR. The winner will be announced in the April 2012 issue.

Saturday, June 25, 2011

Diary

Today [yesterday now] was a good day for me when it comes to poetry.

We launched David Barnes' PRAYERS WAITING FOR GOD with Janet Jackson, Mal MacKimmie and myself reading selections from it - and Mal reminiscing about early days in Empowa (Emerging Poets of WA). The publisher Coral Carter of MULLA MULLA PRESS drove down from Kalgoorlie to be present, and many of Perth's poetry push were present.

The Moon Cafe is a pleasant temperature at this time of year, and with the good sound quality and the live streaming to the Net, the Perth Poetry Club's Saturday sessions are bounding from success to success.

This evening I read at a dinner to benefit Blooming Kids and their orphanage in Cambodia. It was held in the senior cit's hall in Old Perth Road, Bassendean. Before I stood, I was reflecting on all the strange places poets get to read in public. For instance, yesterday my wife and I were walking our Jack Russell over the wet lands across from our house. We came across a land management lady who gave us a thorough description of the work doen and planned for this pocket of land, inclduing all the various reeds and rushes, native trees and Eastern States 'invaders'. Chatting away, in her high vis top and muddy boots, she announced she was 'a poet, a bush poet' and immediately launched into a very good and funny poem about Ducks. I asked if she could send it to me for use here. She said, no, she wanted to make money out of poetry. Money! Ha. Poets are the paupers of the art scene - some have defected to prose, others to full-time in academe. Who can blame them - but a fulltime job does make 'inviting the soul' (Whitman) difficult.

More chatter soon ... There are poems to compose and dog to feed.

Friday, June 24, 2011

BOOK LAUNCH TOMORROW 2PM @ THE MOON


David Barnes' book launch 2-4pm PERTH TIME (GMT + 8 hrs) will be streamed live online at http://www.facebook.com/l/31494szBj_LlYZfkQDdUiNjMkBQ/www.livestream.com/perthlive. Thanks to Jamie Macqueen.

Mulla Mulla Press and the Perth Poetry Club invite you and your friends to the launch of David Barnes' first book of poetry, PRAYERS WAITING FOR GOD this Saturday, 2 to 4pm at The Moon Cafe, 323 William Street, Northbridge.

Readers include Janet Jackson, Mal MacKimmie and Andrew Burke, in the presence of the author and his son Daniel.

I have to tell you, these are poems covering the gamut of emotions. They'll make you laugh, they'll make you cry - they'll make you think, they'll make you thank your lucky stars. These are not intellectual poems with the vocab of a Times crossword: these are poems written from the body and soul of a man who has been through the wringer - and still is. But a smile and a gracious word for his fellows lifts these song-filled words out of self-pity and into poetry.

Scenes cover early life in a cruel boys' home to a drive along Cottesloe Beach, the 'split sunlight dance' of the Great Barrier Reef to pelicans at South Perth. Love poems, lonesome poems, single-parent poems, physical pain poems... This book packs a wallop.

I'd also like to praise Janet Jackson's editing of this manuscript. I didn't see the first draft of the complete Barnes' text, but I'm guessing David had a lot more poems up his sleeve. Janet has paced this book and shuffled the poems into a kind of narrative order which adds to the craftily synergistic effect of the entire collection.

Coral Carter, as the founder and editor-in-chief of Mulla Mulla Press, should be praised for pulling this work together and publishing it without government support. She has put her heart and wallet into supporting WA poets and for this I thank her mightily.

On the Bill this Saturday at Perth Poetry Club you'll also hear Feature Poets CLAYTON LIN, plus well-known Perth expat MAL McKIMMIE (Melbourne)

Open mic as always, but be early. This will be a busy day!

PRAYERS WAITING FOR GOD will be on sale at the launch, but if you can't get there, go to http://www.mullamullapress.com/

Thursday, June 23, 2011

Happy Anniversary!


Fiona Katauskas' work has also appeared in ABC's The Drum, New Matilda, The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, The Australian, The Financial Review and Scribe's Best Australian political cartoon anthologies.

from http://www.eurekastreet.com.au

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Book Launch: This Saturday at Perth Poetry Club: DAVID BARNES' 'PRAYERS WAITING FOR GOD'




Mulla Mulla Press and the Perth Poetry Club invite you and your friends to the launch of David Barnes' first book of poetry, PRAYERS WAITING FOR GOD this Saturday, 2 to 4pm at The Moon Cafe, 323 William Street, Northbridge.

Readers include Janet Jackson, Mal MacKimmie and Andrew Burke, in the presence of the author and his son Daniel.

I have to tell you, these are poems covering the gamut of emotions. They'll make you laugh, they'll make you cry - they'll make you think, they'll make you thank your lucky stars. These are not intellectual poems with the vocab of a Times crossword: these are poems written from the body and soul of a man who has been through the wringer - and still is. But a smile and a gracious word for his fellows lifts these song-filled words out of self-pity and into poetry.

Scenes cover early life in a cruel boys' home to a drive along Cottesloe Beach, the 'split sunlight dance' of the Great Barrier Reef to pelicans at South Perth. Love poems, lonesome poems, single-parent poems, physical pain poems... This book packs a wallop.

I'd also like to praise Janet Jackson's editing of this manuscript. I didn't see the first draft of the complete Barnes' text, but I'm guessing David had a lot more poems up his sleeve. Janet has paced this book and shuffled the poems into a kind of narrative order which adds to the craftily synergistic effect of the entire collection.

Coral Carter, as the founder and editor-in-chief of Mulla Mulla Press, should be praised for pulling this work together and publishing it without government support. She has put her heart and wallet into supporting WA poets and for this I thank her mightily.

On the Bill this Saturday at Perth Poetry Club you'll also hear Feature Poets CLAYTON LIN, plus well-known Perth expat MAL McKIMMIE (Melbourne)

Open mic as always, but be early. This will be a busy day!

PRAYERS WAITING FOR GOD will be on sale at the launch, but if you can't get there, go to http://www.mullamullapress.com/

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Western Australian Premier's Book Awards June 2011



Western Australian Premier’s Book Awards shortlist announced.

Culture and the Arts Minister John Day today announced the shortlists for the 2010 Western Australian Premier’s Book Awards.

Mr Day said a record number of 571 entries were submitted this year, compared to 400 for the 2009 awards.

“I am pleased these important awards are attracting so many entries from a wide range of publishers,” he said.

“This year, a People’s Choice Award has been added to the mix of categories.

“The six titles short―listed in the Fiction category will be eligible for this award, and I encourage avid readers and book club members across Australia to familiarise themselves with each of these fantastic works, so they can influence the outcome.”

Voting on the People’s Choice Award will commence on July 25 and finish on September 2. The voting form will be available on the State Library’s website.

The winners will be announced in September 2011.


Non Fiction

A Three-Cornered Life: The Historian W.K. Hancock Jim Davidson UNSW Press
Breaking News Ben Hills Scribe Publications
Into The Woods: The Battle For Tasmania's Forests Anna Krien Black Inc.
Macquarie Harry Dillon and Peter Butler Random House Australia
Reading by Moonlight Brenda Walker Penguin Group Australia
The Quest For Justice Ken Crispin Scribe Publications

Fiction

Body in the Clouds Ashley Hay Allen & Unwin
Indelible Ink Fiona McGregor Scribe Publications
That Deadman Dance Kim Scott Picador Australia
Traitor Stephen Daisley Text Publishing Co.
Utopian Man Lisa Lang Allen & Unwin
The English Class Ouyang Yu Transit Lounge Publishing

Poetry

Burning Bright Caroline Caddy Fremantle Press
Colombine, New & Selected Poems Jennifer Harrison Black Pepper
Fire Diary Mark Tredinnick Puncher & Wattmann
Phantom Limb David Musgrave John Leonard Press
Pirate Rain Jennifer Maiden Giramondo Publishing
Selected Poems of Dorothy Hewett Kate Lilley UWA Publishing

Children’s Books

Henry Hoey Hobson Christine Bongers Random House
Mirror Jeanne Baker Walker Books
Sarindi’s Dragon Kite Janine M. Fraser/Illusrator Elise Hurst Harper Collins Australia
The Red Wind Isobelle Carmody Penguin Group Australia
The Three Loves Of Persimmon Cassandra Golds Penguin Group Australia
Toppling Sally Murphy/Illustrator Rhian Nest James Walker Books

Young Adults

Anonymity Jones James Roy Random House Australia
Happy as Larry Scot Gardner Allen & Unwin
The FitzOsbornes in Exile : The Montmaray Journals 2 Michelle Cooper Random House
The Midnight Zoo Sonya Hartnett Penguin Group Australia
This Is Shyness Leanne Hall Text Publishing Co.
Wavelength A.J. Betts Fremantle Press

Scripts

Do Not Go Gentle Patricia Cornelius HLA Management
Gwen In Purgatory Tommy Murphy Currency Press
Life Without Me Daniel Keene Currency Press
Love Me Tender Tom Holloway HLA Management
Quack Ian Wilding Currency Press
Songs for Nobodies Joanna Murray—Smith Currency Press

State Library of Western Australia WA History Award

From the Barracks to the Burrup: The National Trust in Western Australia Prof Andrea Whitcomb and Dr Kate Gregory UNSW Press
Till the Stream Runs Dry: A history of hydrography in WA Bill Bunbury Department of Water
The Australind Journals of Marshall Waller Clifton 1840-1861 Phyllis Barnes and Dr James Cameron Hesperian Press
The Forgotten Explorers: pioneer geologists of Western Australia, 1826-1926 Dr J. J. E. Glover and Jenny Bevan Hesperian Press
Vite Italiane: Italian Lives in Western Australia Dr Susanna Iuliano UWA Publishing

Digital Narrative

Only a small number of entries were received for this category and there will not be a shortlist. An encouragement award will be announced at the award presentation ceremony.

Monday, June 20, 2011

T.A.G. (Thomas) Hungerford R.I.P. Tom Hungerford 20th June 2011



The following from Fremantle Press:

T.A.G. (Thomas Arthur Guy) Hungerford died in his sleep this morning at the age of 96 with family by his side. Tom was the author of Fremantle Press books Wong Chu and the Queen’s Letterbox and other stories, Stories from the Suburban Road, Knockabout with a Slouch Hat, Red Rover All Over and his collected works Straightshooter. The T.A.G. Hungerford Award for debut authors was named in his honour.

Close friend of the author and Fremantle Press Sales Manager, Clive Newman, said Tom Hungerford was one of the early success stories for the Press and he was saddened by the news of the author’s death.

“When the first volume in his autobiographical trilogy, Stories from Suburban Road, became a national bestseller, I remember the author’s excitement at the news of his book going into reprint after reprint,” said Newman.

Newman said Tom had a long and lasting association with Fremantle Press, which found expression in his enthusiasm for the literary award bearing his name.

“He loved the thought that he was helping recognise new and emerging writers such as Gail Jones and Alice Nelson and he enjoyed reading the winning books,” said Newman.

Wendy Jenkins, writer and Fremantle Press editor, said Hungerford was a significant Western Australian writer who was very supportive of younger authors.

“He once said to me at a young age ‘You’ve got it Jenkins’ and that meant a great deal to me at the time,” said Jenkins.

“His stories evoked what it was like to be a child between the wars – they were very rich in detail and captured the spirit of the time in a way that will endure,” said Jenkins.

Hungerford was a soldier who served in World War II before travelling to Japan with the British Commonwealth Occupation Force after the war. In 1948 he moved to Canberra where he worked for the Australian War Memorial and began to write. He is the author of four major novels and numerous poems but is perhaps best known for his short stories. He received an Order of Australia for services to Australian Literature in 1987 and the Patrick White Award in 2002.

Staff at Fremantle Press wish to extend their condolences to his family and friends.

Submission guidelines for fourWs 22nd edition CLOSES JUNE 30TH

fourW is one of australia's longest running (& best...) annual anthologies of new poetry & prose.


The Booranga Writers' Centre is currently accepting submissions for fourW twenty-two. The deadline for submissions is June 30th, 2011. fourW twenty-two will be published in November, and launched in Wagga, Melbourne, and Sydney.

For details on how to submit please read below.

For any inquiries, including details of how to order past issues of fourW, contact BOORANGA office staff.

Works are read anonymously: include the contributor’s name and address in the cover email message only.Contributions are welcome of original poetry, fiction and graphics/artwork, not previously published.

fourW is printed in black & white, so contributions of artwork must be suitable for this type of presentation. If sending electronically, these specifications are advisable: greyscale images that fit a B5 page (176 x 250 mm) at 300 dpi saved as an uncompressed TIF or PDF.

The Booranga Prize has been donated by Charles Sturt University, beginning in 2005. $250.00 will be awarded to works selected as the best poem and best short story in the anthology.

Short story word limit is 2500 words.

Contributors are asked to restrict their submissions to 6 poems or 4 short stories.

Submissions should be forwarded in Microsoft Word format by e-mail rather than on hard paper copies.

Please include author biography details (2-3 lines) in your cover email / letter.

Closing date for each issue of fourW is June 30. Submissions received after this date will be held over to the following year.

All submissions will be read by fourW's editorial committee during July and all successful contributors contacted in August/September for proofreading of their own work which will appear in the anthology. All other contributors will be advised of the outcome of the committee’s decision in September. Launch of the anthology is in November of each year.

No payment is made for publication - a free copy of the published anthology will be forwarded to all successful contributors.

All rights remain with the author. Submissions of writing should be emailed (as a word document attachment) or posted directly to Booranga Writer's Centre.


Contact Booranga
Wagga Wagga Writers Writers
Booranga Writers' Centre - Charles Sturt University

booranga@csu.edu.au
Locked Bag 588
Wagga Wagga NSW 2678 Australia
Ph:(02) 6933 2688

Sunday, June 19, 2011

New Collected Poems by Tomas Tranströmer


"Tranströmer is that rare thing: a non-English-language poet who has been fully accepted into British and US poetry in his own lifetime. In the 60s he became associated with Robert Bly and the Deep Image school of US poetry, and in the early 90s (after the publication of the first edition of this book) many UK poets caught on. More recently, Robin Robertson translated a selection of his poems in The Deleted World, and hopefully this new volume of Robin Fulton's translations (which includes Tranströmer's most recent work as well as some previously uncollected haiku and a prose memoir) will confirm a third wave of interest in this poet's work."

A quote from a thoughtful review at http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/jun/17/new-collected-poems-tomas-transtromer-review

I first came in contact with Transtormer while I was having a Robert Bly binge at the Adelaide city library. Some one at that library had a serious knowledge of contemporary poetry, which had been lacking in the Perth library. I would get on my bike (Adelaide city is very flat so it was easy to ride) with my toddler daughter in her little seat at the back, and pedal off to the library. So I'm looking forward to buying this book for many literary and sentimental reasons.

Saturday, June 18, 2011

Extract from the ‘Voyant’ Letter - by Arthur Rimbaud



(Lettre à Paul Demeny: Charleville, 15 mai 1871)

‘Romanticism has never been properly judged. Who could judge it? The Critics! The Romantics! Who prove so clearly that the singer is so seldom the work, that’s to say the idea sung and intended by the singer.
For I is another. If the brass wakes the trumpet, it’s not its fault. That’s obvious to me: I witness the unfolding of my own thought: I watch it, I hear it: I make a stroke with the bow: the symphony begins in the depths, or springs with a bound onto the stage.
If the old imbeciles hadn’t discovered only the false significance of Self, we wouldn’t have to now sweep away those millions of skeletons which have been piling up the products of their one-eyed intellect since time immemorial, and claiming themselves to be their authors!
In Greece, as I say, verse and lyre took rhythm from Action. Afterwards, music and rhyme are a game, a pastime. The study of the past charms the curious: many of them delight in reviving these antiquities: – that’s up to them. The universal intelligence has always thrown out its ideas naturally: men gathered a part of these fruits of the mind: they acted them out, they wrote books by means of them: so it progressed, men not working on themselves, either not being awake, or not yet in the fullness of the great dream. Civil-servants – writers: author; creator, poet: that man has never existed!

The first study for the man that wants to be a poet is true complete knowledge of himself: he looks for his soul; examines it, tests it, learns it. As soon as he knows it, he must develop it! That seems simple: a natural development takes place in every brain: so many egoists proclaim themselves authors: there are plenty of others who attribute their intellectual progress to themselves! – But the soul must be made monstrous: after the fashion of the comprachicos, yes! Imagine a man planting and cultivating warts on his face.
I say one must be a seer (voyant), make oneself a seer.
The Poet makes himself a seer by a long, rational and immense disordering of all the senses. All forms of love, suffering, madness: he searches himself; he consumes all the poisons in himself, to keep only their quintessence. Unspeakable torture, where he needs all his faith, every superhuman strength, during which he becomes the great patient, the great criminal, the great accursed – and the supreme Knower, among men! – Because he arrives at the unknown! Because he has cultivated his soul, already rich, more than others! He arrives at the unknown, and when, maddened, he ends up by losing the knowledge of his visions: he has still seen them! Let him die charging among those unutterable, unnameable things: other fearful workers will come: they’ll start from the horizons where the first have fallen! ……………

I’ll go on:
So the poet is truly the thief of fire, then.
He is responsible for humanity, even for the animals: he must make his inventions smelt, felt, heard: if what he brings back from down there has form, he grants form: if it’s formless he grants formlessness. To find a language – for that matter, all words being ideas, the age of a universal language will come! It is necessary to be an academic – deader than a fossil – to perfect a dictionary of any language at all. The weak-minded thinking about the first letter of the alphabet would soon rush into madness!
This language will be of the soul for the soul, containing everything, scents, sounds, colours, thought attaching to thought and pulling. The poet would define the quantity of the unknown, awakening in the universal soul in his time: he would give more than the formulation of his thought, the measurement of his march towards progress! An enormity become the norm, absorbed by all, he would truly be an enhancer of progress!
This future will be materialistic, you see. – Always filled with Number and Harmony, these poems will be made to last. – At heart, it will be a little like Greek poetry again.
Eternal art will have its function, since poets are citizens. Poetry will no longer take its rhythm from action: it will be ahead of it!
These poets will exist! When woman’s endless servitude is broken, when she lives for and through herself, when man – previously abominable – has granted her freedom, she too will be a poet! Women will discover the unknown! Will her world of ideas differ from ours? – She will discover strange things, unfathomable; repulsive, delicious: we will take them to us, we will understand them.
Meanwhile, let us demand new things from the poets - ideas and forms. All the clever ones will think they can easily satisfy this demand: that’s not so! …..


Translation by the generous A.S.Kline at http://www.poetryintranslation.com/PITBR/French/Rimbaud3.htm#_Toc202003791

EXPERIENCED WRITERS DOMINATE 2011 PETER COWAN 600 SHORT STORY COMPETITION



The eleven finalists have been announced for the Peter Cowan 600 Short Story Competition and it’s the experienced writers who have excelled according to the President of the centre, John McMullan.
‘This year we promoted the competition to universities that have Creative Writing Departments because in 2010 two West Australian university students made the final eleven. In the first semester there are many stories of 500 to 600 word length written by students in the creative writing departments and I thought we might see them do well,’ Mr McMullan said today. ‘Next year the judge will come from an east coast university and it will not only make this competition truly Australia wide, but it ought to stimulate further interest among the creative writing section of universities.’
The final placing will be announced at the Monthly Meeting of the Peter Cowan Writers’ Centre on July 3rd. The contenders are:

Sarah Evans with ‘The Fishing Trip’ is a former journalist who now writes fiction across various genres. She is published in Australia, UK, US and New Zealand with novels, novellas, short stories and poetry. She writes for the women's magazine market and has had stories broadcast on ABC Radio. She has won many writing awards and currently has a crime novel under consideration with an Australian publisher. Her lifestyle/recipe book 'Seasons and Seasonings in a Teapot' is an amusing account of her home-schooling family's attempt at self-sufficiency in the Southwest. Sarah gives talks and teaches creative writing. She edits for a children's publisher and is the organiser of Bridgetown's writers' festival 'Words in the Valley'.

Samantha Sirimanne Hyde
from Denistone, NSW with ‘The Gecko’s Fault,’ which was prompted by the intrinsic concept of karma. Samantha was born in Sri Lanka and migrated to Australia in 1990. She holds a MA in Creative Writing from Macquarie University, Sydney, has published a collection of short fiction called ‘The Villawood Express & other stories’ and her work has appeared in several anthologies. After working as a public servant and then operating a motel till recently, she is now enjoying a well-earned break.

Julie Jay is a Melbourne-based writer, editor and small-press publisher. She’s won the Local Writers section of the Alan Marshall Short Story Competition and her short fiction has appeared in Wet Ink, 21D and Award Winning Australian Writing 2009. She lives in an old house on a big hill with her husband and five children, and her story, ‘Nigel’s Soul’, is about every anxious first date she’s ever had.

‘Santiago Evening’ was written by Sean Adams who was born in Melbourne in 1960. He has published several poems and short stories in anthologies auspiced by the Prahran Mission, in an anthology published by Wombat Books (Qld) entitled "Unborn Beauty" and in Polestar Literary Journal (Also in Qld). He has studied Spanish and is planning a novel. He has recently discovered the joys of Scandinavian crime literature.

Karen Atkinson from Denmark, WA, entered 'The Nest'. Karen is currently working on a book about Anangu Teachers from the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Lands, and her first novel. She enjoys writing prose and poetry and has a story Myfanwy, published in Cat Tales with Spinifex Press. Once In Broome, published by Magabala Books was a collaboration between Karen and Broome artist, Sally bin Demin.

Janeen Samuel lives in South-West Victoria, dabbles in fiction and poetry, and occasionally manages to have her work published: most recently in 2010 a story in "Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine" #44 and a poem in the anthology, "Off the Path" published by Central Coast Poets Inc (NSW). Her stories often have an element of fantasy or science fiction, maybe because she's too lazy to do the research required for realistic fiction. Her entry ‘Dreamwater’ did indeed come out of a dream, though the ending for her (so far) is different.

‘Shalom’ is by Dave Bowen who is originally from Southampton, UK originally, and is now retired from the publishing business he started in Mandurah WA in 1996, the year he also took on the job of co-ordinator of Coastal Writers, a group still helping local people become published authors. *db publishing* produced over 100 titles for local writers and Dave has published 8 poetry, short story and crossword books of his own. Since the age of 15 he has won many awards and been part of several anthologies here and overseas. His favourite success was writing the winning poem for the inauguration of the Mandurah Performing Arts Theatre and having it performed at the opening ceremony by theatre historian, Ivan King.

Mark Edginton is a Senior Technician in Vegetation Mapping and Survey at the Queensland Herbarium, Brisbane. He produces vegetation maps, identify plants and curates a number of plant families and genera in the Herbarium collection. He’s made a couple of starts at writing novels in my early twenties, but at the time didn't have the life experience, focus or inspiration to complete the job. He finally became serious a few years back when he wrote Stone Fish, Texas, a humour/drama novel about an ex-Union Civil War veteran who becomes a sheriff in the fictitious town of Stone Fish, Texas. After reading online that publishers won't look at manuscripts from new authors unless they are brought to their attention by author agents, He soon discovered that most agents are so busy with their current clients that they don't have time to look at anything by new authors, unless they already have an impressive c.v. As a member of the Queensland Writers Centre, he discovered that one way to resolve this Catch 22 situation was to enter writing competitions, which he has only just started to do in earnest.

Yvonne Annette Elliot has two entries in the final eleven, ‘Barbara and the Shoplifters’ and ‘LUV’. Bio: I have written poetry for my own pleasure ever since I can remember. I always thought that I could not write fiction as I didn’t have a good enough imagination. I often wrote articles, and when the children were young, I wrote a lot of “Letters to the Editor” of Women’s Magazines, as the few dollars they paid made me feel good. Because I had left school at age 15, I always regretted not going to university. At age 47, I thought “why not”? I sat for the Entrance Exam, in English and in French, and graduated when I was 57 years old. It took me that long because I was working as well, my father was very ill, my marriage was ending, and I had a lot of other dramas in my life. As part of my degree I took Creative Writing, and had the most amazing Lecturer. One thing he taught me was how to write fiction. It was like releasing a demon inside me, now I write the most outrageous things. I can live a fantasy life in my stories. A pacifist in real life, I commit crimes, and get away with it, via a character I have created. I always said that when I retired I would write non-stop. I belong to the Great Lakes Fellowship of Australian Writers, and also a Creative Writing Group with U3A. I still write letters to the editor of magazines, and getting $50 for a couple of minutes work is very rewarding. I enjoy entering competitions, and it really stretches me, and I love it when I get feedback, so even when I don’t get a place, I learn something new.

Maggie Veness hails from Coffs Harbour, on the sunny north coast of NSW, and loves her fiction short and bitey, like a good espresso. Give her an idiosyncrasy or peccadillo and she’ll write you a story that reveals her quirky, raw, or irreverent sensibility. The inspiration for ‘Cold Meat’ came from secretly wanting to kill off some of her ex-husbands. Maggie’s award winning work has been published in the US, UK, Canada, Australia and NZ.

The judge, Shane McCauley, had his first short story published in Westerly when he was 20, and won the Tom Collins Short Story Prize a year later (1976). He has taught, among other subjects, Creative Writing for 35 years and was a TEE Literature examiner. For several years he reviewed books for 'The West Australian' newspaper. A graduate of the Universities of WA and Sydney (BA Hons, MA Hons), he currently teaches Creative Writing for Polytechnic West and the OOTA Writers' Group at the Fremantle Arts Centre.


Kind Regards

John McMullan
President
Peter Cowan Writers Centre

Office hours Tuesdays and Thursdays, 10am-3pm
Phone/Fax: 9301 2282
E-mail: cowan05@bigpond.com
Website: http://www.pcwc.org.au

Friday, June 17, 2011

Happy Bloomsday, folks. (If a bit late ...)

Saturday Poetry at the Grove, 18th June @ 1.30pm

Helen Hagemann’s Saturday Poetry Class on 18th June will look at “The Poetry of Travel”. The class will look at how travel highlights and frames distinctions between home and away, and offers the chance to record a world elsewhere. Prior to writing exercises the class will look at the many tips for writing ‘travel poetry’, especially entering a poem prismatically. Poets cited: John Forbes, Elizabeth Bishop, Fleur Adcock, Bronwyn Lea, Billy Collins, Mark O’Connor, Diane Fahey and more.

1.30pm-3.30pm. All welcome!

Cottesloe Peppermint Grove & Mosman Park Library‎
1 Leake Street
Peppermint Grove WA 6011
(08) 9385 3233

Perth Poetry Club now on YouTube


Perth Poetry Club now has a new YouTube account 20110430154130
http://www.youtube.com

Quite often Perth Poetry Club has live streaming, and you can watch some of previous shows, at http://www.facebook.com/l/7f14263aAotYt68KPVzNb5CLQyA/www.livestream.com/perthlive

Perth Poetry Club brings you, on Saturday 18 June, with great fanfare and much ado, the fabulous, villainous anti-hero: BYRON BARD. When he is finished with you, you won’t be quite sure what century you’re in, but you will know you’ve been royally entertained.

At The Moon Cafe, 323 William Street, Northbridge between 2 and 4 pm. With open mic and professional sound.

Byron Bard bravely suffers the attentions of his adoring public at http://www.facebook.com/ByronBard

Coming up in Perth Poetry Club:

25 June: CLAYTON LIN, MAL MCKIMMIE + launch of DAVID BARNES's book 'Prayers Waiting for God' with poems read by Andrew Burke, Janet Jackson and Mal McKimmie

2 July: TRACY RYAN + RANDALL STEPHENS (Melbourne)

Thursday, June 16, 2011

Prayers waiting for God - David Barnes (Mulla Mulla Press)


BOOK LAUNCH - 25th June at Perth Poetry Club - Moon Cafe, North Perth

After years of writing, editing and publishing his poetry for enthusiastic readers in Australia and overseas, Perth poet David Barnes has at last created a book.

Spanning a lifetime, crafted with care, spoken in David’s inimitable, gentle Australian voice, these are poems of the stark spirituality of nature, the meeting of eyes, hands and souls, the joy and bewilderment of birth, the tearing grief of premature loss and the horror of abuse.

This is David Barnes first book.

If only I had known her

Parched
was the photo that arrived
on January 4th, 1999,
corners curled, brown with age.
In the photo
a young woman held a child—smiling,
rosy cheeks, blonde hair,
brown eyes gazing,
two hands
holding teddy—in her arms.

She had a gentle face,

rich auburn hair
curling around her neck,
a dress of deep blue velvet.

On her wrist
time stood still... captured.
Leather band, gold watch
on white skin.

She smiles, radiant, at me.

On the back:
Mum, July 1944,
David, thirteen months old,
Betty Reid...
11/11/1923 to 15/6/1994
David Edward Barnes.
It was me, a child.
It was my mother, a woman I never knew.
She was beautiful.

If only I had known her,
held her in my arms, wept upon her shoulder—a man—
and said, ‘I love you, mum.’

It's too late.
The photo came too late.

-----
Go to the publisher's site, Coral Carter's MULLA MULLA PRESS to buy online http://www.mullamullapress.com/prayers

Australian Poetry Journal POETRY SUBMISSIONS OPEN


We are now seeking poetry submissions for the new Australian Poetry Journal. The closing date for the first issue is 4 July 2011.

________________________________________________________________

Submissions must be accompanied by a completed entry form and sent via post or email:

BY POST – to Submission – Australian Poetry Journal PO Box 21082 Little Lonsdale Street VIC 8011. Manuscripts will not be returned.

BY EMAIL – to victoria@australianpoetry.org with the subject title Submission – Australian Poetry Journal. The entry form is to be completed and sent as an attachment to the email.

Submission forms can be downloaded here: http://www.australianpoetry.org/australianpoetryjournal/


Poems previously published (in hardcopy or online) will not be accepted.
Entries should not be on offer to other publications or competitions at the time of submission.
There is a maximum submission of 5 poems per writer per issue.
The closing date for the first issue is 4 July 2011.
Entries postmarked 4 July 2011 are acceptable.
Late entries will not be considered.
Writers will be notified of the results via email.
If you do not have an email address, please include a stamped self-addressed envelope with your postal submission.

Full terms & conditions listed on submission form.

________________________________________________________________


Our vision is to establish a well-respected journal of modern Australian poetry that is utilised by poets, students of poetry and poetry enthusiasts alike. The journal will reflect current priorities and trends in the poetry industry.

Australian Poetry Members will receive the AP journal as part of their membership.

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

haiku

first rains -
pup barks at herself
in a puddle

Call for Submissions: Eye to the Telescope



This is an open call to New Zealand and Australian poets for submissions to Issue 2 of Eye to the Telescope, the Science Fiction Poetry Association's new online journal, to be edited by Tim Jones and published in July/August 2011. The focus of Issue 2 is on New Zealand and Australian speculative poetry. Issue 2 will include a maximum of 20 poems. This is a paying market.

Full submission guidelines are here:

http://www.eyetothetelescope.com/submit.html

The 2011 Sydney City Poet - Apply Now!



The aim of the Sydney City Poet is to encourage and promote the reading, writing and appreciation of literature and poetry across Sydney and New South Wales, and to reflect the city of Sydney in their work.

The 2011 Sydney City Poet will be appointed for a 1 year term, commencing in July 2011. The City Poet will be based in an office with the Creative Practices Area of the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) on a part-time basis and will receive a stipend of $20,000 for the year, provided by the NSW Government.

The role of the Sydney City Poet:
· to write and present poetry for public occasions, ceremonies or prominent events
· represent and be an ambassador for the city of Sydney in regards to poetry and the arts locally, nationally and internationally
· contribute to the community and regional sector of New South Wales by participating in literary focused programs
· collaborate with organisations and institutions to promote poetry

It is expected that the 2011 Sydney City Poet will:
· work in partnership with the UTS Centre for New Writing and Arts NSW to develop a program for the year
· produce 6 publishable poems during the year (including some related to cultural, civic and special events)which can be published online and/or in print. These poems will celebrate the city of Sydney in a variety of ways
· give public readings of their own work at formal or informal public events
· deliver 2 workshops / seminars during the year to interested students, poets and the general public
· have some kind of regional engagement, for example, online or through the NSW network of writer’s centres
· provide mentoring to less experienced poets locally, regionally and nationally

The position of 2011 Sydney City Poet is supported by the UTS Centre for New Writing and the NSW Government through Arts NSW.

You may direct enquiries about the City Poet to John Dale, Head, Creative Practices, FASS, UTS on John.Dale@uts.edu.au or 02 95141951

To apply for the 2011 Sydney City Poet please forward a CV and a 3 page application by 1 July 2011 detailing how you would fulfill the duties of the Sydney Poet to:
City Poet, UTS Centre for New Writing, FASS, UTS PO Box 123 Broadway NSW 2007

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Chris Wallace-Crabbe awarded Order of Australia



Chris Wallace-Crabbe Photo: Neil Newitt

CHRIS Wallace-Crabbe won his first prize when he was five. He still has the book he received. ''It says it was literature. Quite what they meant by that I really don't know.''

Now, 72 years later, the Richmond-born poet has received another honour for literature, although this time the reasons behind his Order of Australia have been spelt out: ''For service to the arts as a leading poet, critic and educator …''

While admitting that he finds it slightly odd, he says he has often thought it would be good if more people in the creative arts were recognised. ''But I'm very pleased and I'm very pleased that poetry got a guernsey.''

Wallace-Crabbe published his first collection, The Music of Division, in 1959; next year New and Selected Poems will appear.

In between there have been 15 other collections and a novel.

He has edited several books and remains emeritus professor at Melbourne University's Australian Centre, of which he was founding director in 1989.

He has held visiting academic posts at Harvard, Yale, Venice and Exeter universities, and is founding chair of the Australian Poetry Centre.

In a poem called Modern Times from his 2001 book, By and Large, he writes: ''Part of my self would love to master/ Versatile verses that might contain/ Bamboozle, billy-cart, bonk, and bonzer,/ Teasing language to fill up the frame.''
...

Wallace-Crabbe says the life of a poet is not always easy in Australia: ''There are few countries where a poet really makes enough money. Most have other occupations.''


Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/a-sharp-eye-brings-its-own-reward-20110612-1fz8c.html#ixzz1PDrljwBG

Perth Poetry Club News

Perth Poetry Club brings you, on Saturday 18 June, with great fanfare and much ado, the fabulous, villainous anti-hero: BYRON BARD. When he is finished with you, you won’t be quite sure what century you’re in, but you will know you’ve been royally entertained.

At The Moon Cafe, 323 William Street, Northbridge between 2 and 4 pm. With open mic and professional sound.

He bravely suffers the attentions of his adoring public at http://www.facebook.com/ByronBard

Coming up in Perth Poetry Club:

25 June: CLAYTON LIN, MAL MCKIMMIE + launch of DAVID BARNES's book 'Prayers Waiting for God' with poems read by Andrew Burke, Janet Jackson and others

2 July: TRACY RYAN + RANDALL STEPHENS (Melbourne)

E L E C T I O E D I T I O N S 'if not in paint' Campbell - Orders close June 30th




alphabeta 2 if not in paint

by M A R I O N M A Y C A M P B E L L
with two original drawings by MIRIAM MORRIS

Electio Editions is delighted to present the second book in its alphabeta series. if not in paint traces not only a series of ecstatic moments, a kind of alongsidedness of the occasion of writing, but also exhibits its own response to the very commission of writing for Electio. Altho Marion May Campbell is more widely known as a novelist, the poetry in her recent book, Fragments from a paper witch, shows her as a poet of brilliance, sensitivity and skill of a high order – ‘I read the texture / not the word / of shop front signs / the frets and struts / that rust behind each letter’ (from there is no electric miracle). For this book, Miriam Morris has done two original drawings (that is, each copy has originals, not printed images) in pen & acrylic inks. A limited number of extra sets of the drawings, suitable for framing, will also be available.

The book has 24 pages, the types are Giovanni Mardersteig’s Dante and S H de Roos’s Libra, and the printing is on damped BFK Rives Heavyweight paper on a Pratt-Albion handpress. Binding is a single handsewn signature done at the Press in a protective box made by Duncan Group, Melbourne.
All copies will be signed by the poet & artist.

The edition size will be determined by the number of orders received, and orders close on 30 June 2011. Orders and enquiries should be sent to Electio at alanloney@gmail.com

Price : AUD $260 the copy for the book. For the book plus the extra set of drawings, AUD $350.

Electio Editions
6/47 Grant Street
Malvern East
VIC 3145
Australia

[Suffolk Poetry Society] Poems and Poets - poems sought for anthology



Poems and Poets seeks poems for an anthology celebrating the international poetry year. Of special interest are poems that touch on the human relationships, love, life, death, family, politics and nature.

The editors are especially interested in themes related to humanity and/or environmental, consciousness but are open to diverse subjects.Political poetry and poetry of witness encouraged.

No entry fee. Deadlines: July 15.

The focus may be on issues of modern life daily experiences in poetry of any genre. Requested are submissions that address the theme(s)of Human Relationships, War and Peace, Borders, Identity, Love, Life and Death, Inspirational, Politics, Women, etc... in new and exciting ways that allow readers to see the multiplicity of angles and issues these broad headings generate.

Submissions are open to any creative writers in academic scholarship cycles (students, professors, etc.) and poets from confirmed ones to emerging ones.

Feel free to transmit and publish this Call for Papers and information among your academic poetry and literary community and websites.

For submission details, see http://www.poemsandpoets.net

Best Regards,

Eva Reynolds
Editorial Staff

-----

PS: The logo wording up top is in white, so you must reverse it somehow to see it!

Saturday, June 11, 2011

PERTH POETRY CLUB - NOW STREAMING LIVE!

The Perth Poetry Club has been going some years now and is settled in at The Moon Cafe in Northbridge every Saturday afternoon from 2 to 4pm. They have guest readers and sometimes a little live music, plus a spirited bunch of open mikers who entertain with poems from the light hearted to the saddest of tales.

Now there's a new innovation - right now the PPC is streaming live to the world at http://www.facebook.com/l/457a0UwYbTm92FLd8zIB4pfbGBg/www.livestream.com/perthlive

Only minutes to go today - but come back next week and tune in again at 2pm. There'll be a launching of David Barnes new Chapbook from Mulla Mulla Press with reading by Janet Jackson and Andrew Burke - plus others and Open Mic . The coffees not bad either! The Moon is licensed and serves up a few delicious dishes. Saturday afternoons were never so much fun!

Wednesday, June 08, 2011

Cut and Fold Escher - Wow!


Go to http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2011/05/math-monday-cut-and-fold-escher-2.html and get the lowdown and the diagram to make your own cut&fold model of Escher's Relativity. Brilliant! I never did pass kindy so I'm probably never gunna make it, but I'm sure in you have an hour's worth of patience, it can be done.

Quote for the Day

“Drive a nail home and clinch it so faithfully that you can wake up in the night and think of your work with satisfaction,- a work at which you would not be ashamed to invoke the Muse.”

Henry Thoreau

Tuesday, June 07, 2011

More on Prose Poems

Just quickly, I wrote about Prose Poems recently and tried a few drafts here - which caused a few people to ask me questions. I gave short, probably useless, answers. So now I am directing anyone interested in the form to Poets.org's history and explanation, with examples, at http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/5787 In the margin they have a great list of examples, too.

The best way to find out about any poetic form is to attempt it. Even a rough and tumble result will have taught you more than any instruction manual.

The Collage Book of Drafts - by Rachel Blau DuPlessis


Biographical note: Rachel Blau DuPlessis is an American poet-critic, whose long poem project, Drafts, begun in 1986, is collected in several book-length instalments. These include Pitch: Drafts 77-95 as well as Torques: Drafts 58-76, Drafts 39-57, Pledge, with Draft unnnumbered: Précis and Drafts 1-38, Toll. In 2006, two books of her innovative essays were published: Blue Studios: Poetry and Its Cultural Work on gender and poetics, along with the ground-breaking The Pink Guitar: Writing as Feminist Practice.

Main description: Rachel Blau DuPlessis has, to cite Walter Benjamin, “an edgy attraction to history’s material residues.” This has been one motivation of Drafts as a decade-long project, and it is a central motivation for The Collage Poems of Drafts. This book consists of two sequenced mixed-media works for reading and looking that move back and forth across the porous border between language and image. Draft 94: Mail Art alludes to the international collage exchanges send by the post; Draft CX: Primer examines the suggestiveness of the alphabet as one baseline of language and poetry, one method of making signs. Both works suggest the transport of daily life. These collages are acts of making, layering, and evoking by juxtaposition. They are cryptic, gnomic, even partly narrative, but as a whole they announce her fundamental commitment to juxtaposition—via syntax and segment in the poetry, and via image and color in the collages. They produce actualized metaphor, with talismanic signage, gnomic language, color, script, string—a thread of suggestive meanings set in play. These works are part of the bricolaging, anti-monumental sensibility of the work as a whole. They glean, they unpack and layer, they deturn images, they rescue and reframe the debris.


I tried, and then I tried, and then I ran out of technical know-how, to give you examples of the pages in this book - but failed. See them for yourselves at http://www.saltpublishing.com/books/smp/9781844717583.htm

Monday, June 06, 2011

The Captain's Tower: Seventy Poems Celebrate Bob Dylan at Seventy


Foreword by Ronnie Wood

Unbelievably, Bob Dylan is 70 in May. The Captain’s Tower is a birthday present anthology of poems concerned with Dylan’s life, his work, and his cultural impact. One of the most distinguished lyricists of the post-war period, Dylan has entertained and inspired poets, writers generally and millions of ordinary fans with the imagery, wit and technique of his writing, be it in songs of love, protest, faith or pure Dylan-ness.

In this book the poets answer back in a response to Dylan’s creativity, capacity to inspire and his enormous influence on culture and writing. Here are poems by Allen Ginsberg, Lachlan Mackinnon, Glyn Maxwell, Matthew Sweeney, Jeremy Reed, Linda Chase, Linda France, Mark Ford, Roger McGough, Roddy Lumsden, Paul Muldoon, Simon Armitage, Caroline Bird, Peter Finch, Luke Wright.

There is bound to be a huge media response to Dylan’s birthday and this will be part of it – a must for Dylan fans and poetry readers alike.

The Captain's Tower will be launched on Monday 13th June at the site of Dylan's first ever UK performance in 1962 - The Troubadour Club. Visit the Troubadour website for further details: http://www.coffeehousepoetry.org
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Join SEREN Online Book Club to get 20% off every book you buy, including The Captain's Tower. http://www.serenbooks.com/join-our-book-club

Sunday, June 05, 2011

Frank Parker (poet) reading with Lyon Leifer (bansuri)



http://www.pogsound.org/POGimages/Parker_Leifer.mp3

This is a sweet event where my friend Frank Parker reads his work-in-progress poem Win Po to the lyrical accompaniment of Lyon Leifer, well traveled and musically experienced flautist. It was recorded at The Drawing Studio on March 26, 2011. The words are set down but the music is a variation on Indian raga, an improvised piece of classical Indian music with spiritual roots.

You can also click back on this site to find lots of other readings by poets you may have heard of - http://www.pogsound.org/. There's Rae Armantrout, Charles Alexander, George Mattingly, Mark Weiss and Eileen Myles, to name a few. Go for a wander and lend an ear. Many a time it inspires poets to hear other poets read their work, live or recorded.

The New North, edited by Chris Agee (Salt, £9.99)



This anthology offers a snapshot of the contemporary scene in Northern Irish poetry. All the 14 writers whose work provides the main focus here were born after 1955 and the book emphasises the idea of the short lyric poem, flexible, unpredictable, free of an overemphasis on craft, as the marker of a new sensibility. Leontia Flynn's writing is fast-paced, tongue-in-cheek, swerving knowingly between the celebratory and the confrontational, and is a delight. Equally compelling are the darker notes and concentrations of Sinéad Morrissey. Both these poets are very much concerned with travel, with new places and new subject matters. Cathal Ó Searcaigh, one of two Irish-language poets included and several of whose pieces are translated by Seamus Heaney, frequently celebrates home through the possibilities of other places (see the excellent poem to Jack Kerouac). However, it's in the slender throwaway lines to be found in the work of Andy White, with their impressive lightness of touch, that the book best embodies its declared faith in the virtues of "the smaller thing". CB

Excerpt from book:

The Museum of Censorship
by Matt Kirkham

For black and white figures, before and after
they were airbrushed from their black and white photos,
we are keeping this gallery of spaces.

We are keeping this for the dust
from a statue of the Buddha, or maybe
for a woman’s face. To be a curator
you must be inspired by the beauty
of pieces that emphasise what is lost.

Though emphasise is wrong. For phalluses
chipped from Hindu or Egyptian statues—
look elsewhere for the statues themselves—
we are keeping this gallery of spaces.

We are in a cathedral after the civil war,
counting our places, in the absence of saints.



20% off at SALT's UK Bookstore! http://www.saltpublishing.com/books/anth/9781907773037.htm
was £9.99
Now £7.99


Buy in the USA now from the Book Depository
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