AustLit

'A few months ago, I was talking with a translator, both of us marvelling at what a bastard language English is. The sheer weight of words from 100 sources, the way words with very different meanings can sound exactly the same and how others can vary in their context. This is a writer’s delight. The book we’re here to celebrate today is Brief Garden. I didn’t realise until well into the book that the title comes from a twist around an actual Brief Garden arising from a legal brief but the phrase so perfectly sums up all that this book is about.' (Introduction)

'I would also like to acknowledge that we are gathered on the land of the Whadjuk people of the Noongar nation and to pay my respect to their elders past and present.'  (Introduction)

'Thanks to Kit for asking me to do the Sydney launch of Poor Man’s Coat.

'Poor Man’s Coat is Kit’s latest publication, one of many books of poetry that have gone before, about 17, according to his online bio. As many of you here today will know, Kit is not in the mold of the languorous poet, leisurely dreaming up another verse but is a phenomenon and a force of nature, tapping into some inexhaustible source to produce a large output of poetry and academic work, to attack his many projects as a writer, publisher, scholar and catalyst for countless other people, including me. And today we’re also launching a book by Les Wicks that is published by Kit’s Flying Islands Press.' (Introduction)

'I am really honoured to be launching Paul Hetherington’s book of prose poetry, Moonlight on Oleander in this beautiful venue – it’s a bibliophile’s dream!

'I should say at the outset, I am prose poet and a prose poetry devotee, and this book is extraordinary because it pushes the prose poem to its limit – there’s nothing timid about Paul’s use of the prose poem form. He draws on its flexibility to create new and exciting varieties and approaches – from narrative prose poems with long, looping sentences (almost like long reels of film), to stark elegies which are taut and compressed in their lamentation, and sleek prose poetry sequences that grow with a kind of slow gestation to become something bigger than the sum of their parts.' (Introduction)

'Les Wicks has done it again. Belief is his 14th poetry collection. He says he aims to bring a book out every three years, and has continued to do so, without, need I say, any loss in quality. I can’t pretend to understand every word or poem he writes, but nothing valuable is achieved without effort. To me it’s sometimes like doing a cryptic crossword − all the clues are there, a plethora of images suggest answers, and suddenly you’ve got it. A few wines or whiskeys along the way may, or may not, help. Sometimes it’s more productive to Google the more erudite references.' (Introduction)

'The gallery of presences on the cover of Back to Earthis both an invitation and a question raiser: whose are these faces and why have they been chosen? To enter the collection is to learn that each face is either well known to Tony, or a presence met briefly and powerfully enough to have left an imprint. Diamond, the one non-human face, is the tiger in the poem ‘Orphan in the Forest, Laos 2005’.   (Introduction)

'Thanks to Sarah for asking me to launch this book, her first book. It is a beautiful production and features a wonderful cover design and layout by Dylan Jones. Also congratulations are due to Mark Roberts and Linda Adair, small press people from way back, who reactivated their publishing enterprise 7 years ago with The Rochford Street Review, an online journal, and now Rochford Press, their imprint for book production.' (Introduction)

'I first met Rae Desmond Jones (or ‘RDJ’ if you like, for short) in the mid 1970s, just after I had taken up with my new partner, the former New York poet Carol Novack. Soon after meeting Carol, I moved to Sydney, to live with her.' (Introduction)

'First of all I would like to pay my respects and acknowledge country. I want to  recognise and thank  the Awabakal and Worimi people who have nurtured the lands on which we are standing and whose guardianship and spirit remains strong in this place.' (Introduction)

'It was a great pleasure and honour to be invited to launch Christopher Konrad’s new book of poetry, Argot. Argot is the third major publication by Chris in the past five years, since his Sunline collection I Read My Ancestors(published in Sandfire, 2012, with collections by Flora Smith and Rose van Son) and Letters to Mark (published by Regime in 2014). This latter was the creative component of his PhD from Edith Cowan university, an uncategorisable and fascinating amalgam of poetry, philosophy, theology and fiction. He has also published in many journals and received awards such as the prestigious Tom Collins Poetry Prize. In short, he has been creatively energetic across several genres, and is certainly one of the most intellectually engaging and exciting writers currently at work in Australia.' (Introduction)

'I am honoured to welcome Anna Couani to Canberra and her husband Hilik Miranka, both artists and huge supporters of other artists. So to her wonderful seventh book thinking process. thinking … process. What a title! It intrigues with its possibilities, is both clear and concrete and tantalising at the same time.'  (Introduction)