AustLit

'Biota is a neo-surrealist book with a double-theme. Neo-surreal, following John Ashbery’s conception of an unconscious and conscious, lower-case and all-inclusive surrealism. Double-themed, with Biota first as an umbrella. Biota from the (poeticised) ecological sciences: the organisms that occupy a place, habitat or time together. Marine, terrestrial, digital, living or dead. Asymmetrical / symmetrical. The second theme of Biota is its surreal translations of shrines that are connected with the traditional religion, folklore and myth of Việt Nam. Shrines are places to leave nourishment for dead souls / so they don’t fall into a deep hunger and die / a second death to be reborn as hungry ghosts– / lost souls of eternal hunger. / Of course, all shrines are pockets / and all pockets are houses. Multi-disciplinary artist and beloved friend, Daniel de Filippo makes his own surreal translations through drawings of the poem translations of the shrines – and between each is a ghost’s ephemeral shimmer. Biota is by turns political, autobiographical, travelogue, sketch book, cross-pollination and of course, an odyssey of the surreal.' (Publication summary)

'The first collection of writing from the prolific artist, WART, accompanied by 45 colour reproductions of paintings done over the last 30 years.

'Poetry and stories displaying a wonderfully idiosyncratic use of language – humorous, poignant and powerful in their exploration of the mind, relationships and the deep importance of creative practice.

'Past Wents is a powerful visual and textual work in which language is sculpted to best present the author’s authentic voice – it is loud – it is tender – it is true.' (Publication summary)

'John Kinsella has been working on his series of Graphology Poems for almost thirty years, and published the first of these in the mid-1990s. Concerned with issues of orthography, handwriting, typing, modes of discussing and conveying experience, and with issues of perception and modes of writing, there has also been concurrently, mainly in journal-form, an accruing catalogue of visual commentary, illustration, scribbles, sketches, colour codings, and drawing-poems. This book represents work from a recent series of 'drawing-poems' composed in a continuous sweep often interlinked with journal-writing. The book also juxtaposes an earlier unpublished sequence of Graphology poems written some years ago that served as the incipient 'form' for the kaleidoscopic drawing-poems series in this book. Fascinated by kaleidoscopes as a child, the poems and poem-drawings swirl, fragment, rearrange and circulate around each other, bringing events onto the page. Deeply concerned with the well-being of the natural environment as well as human rights and justice issues, these pieces work as interventions, discussions, and exchanges between the real world and imagined ones. Resisting the colonising 'qualities' of Western art, they investigate the possibilities of working against representative 'dimensionality', and consider the one dimensional, two dimensional and 'undimensional' aspects of representation. The attempt is to create an illuminated book influenced by William Blake, wherein the poem and drawing are inseparable as forms of written text.' (Publication summary)

'Recent decades have seen ceaseless catastrophes created by governments' failure to engage with the environmental-political reality of climate change.

'In her third poetry collection, journalist and film critic Roberta Lowing, author of the Asher Award-winning Iraq war sequence Ruin, and the Prime Minister's Award and Commonwealth Book Prize-nominated Notorious, responds to the domino effect of human-made environmental damage.

'This Attic of Fire is a political work that strives to demonstrate how relevant - and revelatory - poetry can be to a modern society.

'This is poetry as an act of protest and a place of sanctuary.'(Publication summary)

'Melding dreams, autobiography, invective, rant and the grotesque, IVRIS captures the psychotic mind in deterioration and renewal, expressing the disturbing insights of a mind in chaos.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'I Am Cut Viciously is a reproduction of an original artist book by Australia's greatest Outsider Artist Anthony Mannix.

'This book was created in 1988 and acquired by The Museum of Everything in London in 2016.

'This publication aims to bring Mannix's fragile artist books to a wider audience. To this original artist book has been added poetic text from his many other works.'

Source: Publisher's blurb (2020 ed.).