AustLit

'Gerald Murnane’s latest literary offering, Green Shadows and Other Poems, is the octogenarian’s poignant homage to a life spent in rural Victoria. This forty-five poem collection is deeply personal, and a departure from Murnane’s previous novels, short stories, and 2015 memoir, Something for the Pain. After a lengthy hiatus from poetry, he returned to the form after moving to inland Goroke in 2009 upon the death of his wife. There he took up residence in a shed in his son’s backyard.' (Introduction)

'In the last few years, the upsurge of interest and participation in poetry, writing, reading and performing, has been happily rising fast. One regular event which predates this new wave, is the monthly Nimbin Poetry Evening, now in its 20th year. Alongside it runs the annual Nimbin Poetry World Cup, now in its 15th year. The Cup boasts a creditable roll-call of participants. Even more impressive because Nimbin is a very small country town, hosting these events well before the Internet could claim credit for promotions.' (Introduction)

'Mark Mahemoff’s most recent collection of poems will please a recent critic of Contemporary Australian Poetry, who claimed that there isn’t enough poetry about this city. Mark’s URBAN is my Sydney urban: the train stations are familiar, the aircraft noise, and the people he describes. “This is pure city” he writes, and his poem meticulously distills this quality, which is all out there in the world, but it takes a poet like Mark to find that purity.' (Introduction)

'Such hope in the title on a smart looking small book, then a rather sweetly distressed illustration, but still a lovely white feather on the cover. A sense of danger and also a lightness about it. In the work itself, amusement is ably shown and echoes of chances to live better or rethink some attitude, with variations on family life, friendships, love affairs, and other serious, close human matters. Many fine lines offer a sense of positivity and urgency. The language itself is ordered in ways to delight, puzzle and inform.' (Introduction)

'Elif Sezen is a talented Australian poet who grew up in Australia and in Turkey, she writes poetry both in English and in Turkish and is an interdisciplinary visual artist with a PHD in Fine Arts. Sezen’s poetry takes the reader on a cross-cultural trip where we encounter poems, which reflect the adaptation of a migrant to a new culture and a new of way of life. She also takes us into ancestral trips, into memories of far away exotic lands and on trips, which appear to arise from the deepest corners of her creative mind. Words shaded by culture, the female essence and the enigma of living adorn the pages of Universal Mother.' (Introduction)

'Annamaria Weldon has produced an impressive collection with Stone Mother Tongue. Her imagery has some lovely naturalistic twists and turns with some breath-taking phrases. These are well crafted poems featuring lively, lithe lines, and gorgeous situations like in the ’16 Haiku for Lakelands Library Windows’, where Weldon mentions:'

Five black swans fly home
at nightfall, singing their way
through the starless sky'

 (Introduction)

'Les Wicks is a poet, publisher and editor, with a long list of publications; Belief is his fourteenth book of poetry. The actual book is small but do not be discouraged by its size, as you will find it is a bag full of surprises.' (Introduction)

'A serious-looking cover of rich, dark brown with white lettering, some of the word “broken” falling apart and down, but also it seemed possibly forming as well a set of difficult steps to climb back up? A glossy finish, and the book design seems deliberately reminiscent of the more well-produced protest poem books of the early to mid-20th century. The style intrigued me, with its retro feeling. A definite fresh approach evident too. Reassuring to gather a signal of what to expect.' (Introduction)