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Gig Ryan Gig Ryan i(A23064 works by) (birth name: Elizabeth Anne Martina Ryan) (a.k.a. Gig Elizabeth Ryan)
Born: Established: 1956
c
England,
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United Kingdom (UK),
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Western Europe, Europe,
;
Gender: Female
Arrived in Australia: 1957
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1 y separately published work icon Best of Australian Poems 2023 Gig Ryan (editor), Panda Wong (editor), Glebe : Puncher and Wattmann , 2023 26845870 2023 anthology poetry

'Best of Australian Poems is an annual anthology collecting previously published and unpublished poems to create a poetic snapshot and barometer of the year that was. Capturing the richness and diversity of Australian poetry across a timeframe of 1 July 2022–1 August 2023, the series (now in its third year) will explore how poetic responses to the contemporary moment develop with each passing year.' 

'The 2023 book opens with an introduction by its editors, highly respected poets and editors Gig Ryan and Panda Wong. Gig Ryan is one of the country’s most highly recognised and read poets, with major awards for her poetry over decades, and a prominent publication profile both here and overseas. Panda Wong is on the vanguard of Australian literature as a poet, editor and performer whose work spans the page, stage and digital space. Previous editors of this prestigious series have been Ellen van Neerven and Toby Fitch (2021), and Jeanine Leane and Judith Beveridge (2022).

'The Best of Australian Poems (BoAP) series is published by Australia’s national poetry organisation, Australian Poetry, and will feature two different guest editors each year, to amplify the range of voices selected. It is funded by the Australia Council for the Arts and individual patrons.' (Publication summary)

(Publication summary)

1 Struck in Traffic Gig Ryan , 2022 single work poetry
— Appears in: The Language in My Tongue : An Anthology of Australian and New Zealand Poetry 2022; (p. 162)
1 Principle of Insufficient Reason Gig Ryan , 2022 single work poetry
— Appears in: The Language in My Tongue : An Anthology of Australian and New Zealand Poetry 2022; (p. 155-156)
1 Winter Concession i "Rain on the walkway, mirthless footpath,", Gig Ryan , 2021 single work poetry
— Appears in: Australian Poetry Journal , vol. 11 no. 2 2021-2022; (p. 35)
1 Springboards : Three New Poetry Collections Gig Ryan , 2021 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , April no. 430 2021; (p. 42-43)

— Review of I Don't Know How That Happened Oliver Driscoll , 2020 selected work poetry ; Nothing to Declare Mags Webster , 2020 selected work poetry ; The Dancer in Your Hands <> Jo Pollitt , 2020 single work poetry novella
1 Simaetha i "Where are my bay leaves and charms, my bowl with crimson flowers", Gig Ryan , 2020 single work poetry
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , December no. 427 2020; Best of Australian Poems 2021 2021; (p. 177)
1 Fortune's Favours i "Two birds scoop white sky", Gig Ryan , 2020 single work poetry
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , May no. 421 2020; (p. 29)
1 The Moth of Return i "You’re a perfect stranger,", Gig Ryan , 2018 single work poetry
— Appears in: Journal of Poetics Research , September / October no. 9 2018;
1 Spiritual Exercises i "Lost cities function as decision.", Gig Ryan , 2018 single work poetry
— Appears in: Journal of Poetics Research , September / October no. 9 2018;
1 Hillary and Donald and Julia and George : Jennifer Maiden's Phenomenal Oeuvre Gig Ryan , 2018 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , August no. 403 2018; (p. 67-68)

'Jennifer Maiden’s first books, Tactics (1974) and The Problem of Evil (1975), introduced a fantastically complex and enquiring poetry, with strangely fragmentary assemblages of character wrought from conflict. Both books were partly inspired by television’s gory nightly footage of the Vietnam War. While much poetry in the 1970s was of seditiously unvarnished protest, Maiden’s was intricate and stylised, poems toppling with moral dilemmas and extraordinary images, or restrained in pure lyricism such as ‘The Windward Side’: ‘The island has a windward side / walkless long and crossless wide / & winds across the cliff-face ride: / a woman’s face / caved in with pride / that craves for every blow.’ (Introduction)

1 Spring Idylls i "‘My new persona helped me to make money,’ says the streamer,", Gig Ryan , 2018 single work poetry
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , April no. 400 2018; (p. 41)
1 Gig Ryan on Rae Desmond Jones (1941-2017) Gig Ryan , 2017 single work obituary (for Rae Desmond Jones )
— Appears in: Sydney Review of Books , October 2017;

'Rae Desmond Jones has stated that for him poetry and politics are mutually contradictory pursuits, yet his poetry, concerned with how people and classes interact, is, like all art, necessarily political. Poems explore, often comically, types of capital, and its deployment of power, from the cruising ‘sharks’ in the street menacing bypassers, to teacher-student relationships finally pushed into hatred: ‘the room constricts us all / i almost say get out / go back to your DVDs & your hopeless dreams: / be unemployable… let there be war between us’ (‘Decline and fall’). Jones limns a dichotomy between the powerful and the powerless, fumigating, and sometimes almost deifying, its ambiguity and irresolvability.'  (Introduction)

1 Letter from Iceland Gig Ryan , 2017 single work prose
— Appears in: Sydney Review of Books , October 2017;

'On the door of Grái Kötturinn cafe is the painted face of a grey cat with green eyes. It grins awkwardly, its crooked white whiskers etched into the paint in thin lines like scratches. Although I had my eye out for the Grái Kötturinn, I almost missed it as I walked down Hverfisgata, the street which runs parallel to the harbour shoreline of Reykjavík. Seeing the painted grey cat, I open the red door and enter the cafe, a small room partitioned by bookshelves.' (Introduction)

1 'Fragments' by Antigone Kefala and 'A House by the River' by Diane Fahey Gig Ryan , 2017 single work essay
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , June-July no. 392 2017;
'Antigone Kefala’s Fragments, her fifth book of poems and first since Absence: New and selected poems (1992), is often menaced by the past, like her first collection, The Alien (1973). Here too are some subtly demolishing portraits, as well as buoyant poems such as ‘Metro Cellist’ and the slightly brooding ‘Summer at Derveni’: ‘Afternoon heat / empty of voices / on the foil surface / heads drifting / like heavy ornaments.’ While early work transmuted the impact of her migrations from Romania to Greece to New Zealand to Australia into a pervasive sense of loss, these new poems allude to, rather than relate, such journeys that pass through languages and decades: ‘When they came back / their eyes were scorched / their hands like open wounds / the road, they said, / nothing but fire / no coolness / as they were promised / in the fables’ (‘Pilgrims’ Tales’).' (Introduction)
1 Psych Ward Gig Ryan , 2017 single work criticism
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , March no. 389 2017; (p. 52-53)
‘Since Michael Dransfield’s death at the age of twenty-four in 1973, there have been two books of poems, a Collected Poems (1987), a study of his generation, Parnassus Mad Ward (Livio Dobrez, 1990), as well as Michael Dransfield’s Lives: A sixties biography (Patricia Dobrez, 1999), and John Kinsella’s Michael Dransfield: A retrospective (2002). Unlike other poets who died too young, such as Charles Buckmaster (1951–72), Dransfield had cultivated an older, more established group of poets who ensured that his many poems would be issued posthumously.’ (Introduction)
1 Muzzled Altar Gig Ryan , 2016 single work poetry
— Appears in: Active Aesthetics : Contemporary Australian Poetry 2016; The Best Australian Poems 2017 2017; (p. 135)
1 The Raft of Odysseus Gig Ryan , 2016 single work poetry
— Appears in: Active Aesthetics : Contemporary Australian Poetry 2016;
1 Astronomical Twilight i "In a dress, in a dream", Gig Ryan , 2016 single work poetry
— Appears in: The Best Australian Poems 2016 2016; (p. 154) Cordite Poetry Review , 4 May no. 54.0 2016;
1 Nautical Twilight i "His sorceries are boo-hooing a teller,", Gig Ryan , 2016 single work poetry
— Appears in: Poetry , May 2016; (p. 123)
1 Civil Twilight i "Emotion scoops the footpath’s velvet edges,", Gig Ryan , 2016 single work poetry
— Appears in: Poetry , May 2016; (p. 122)
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