AustLit

'A.J. Carruthers has been admirably busy — academic monograph, blog posts for Southerly, a new index of experimental poets on Jacket2, job in Shanghai, daily Tweets. And there is a lot in his project of promoting ‘the Australian avant-garde’ to be sympathetic towards, particularly as a project after his Stave Sightings. But can we make a distinction between his formulation of ‘the Australian avant-garde’ (or its variations such as ‘neo’ and ‘experimental’) and ‘the avant-garde in ‘Australia’’? And how might that matter for suburbanism?'  (Introduction)

'Caitlin Maling's second poetry collection Border Crossing (2017) departs from the home terrain of childhood and growing up in Western Australia that Maling so searingly interrogated on her first book Conversations I've Never Had (Fremantle Press 2015), shortlisted for the Western Australian Premier's Book Awards, Judith Wright Poetry Prize, and the Dame Mary Gilmore Prize. As the name suggests, Border Crossing moves away from Perth where the author grew up and turns its gaze to the self in exile...' (Introduction)