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AbstractHistoryArchive Description
'Fish Work brings the great barrier reef into poetic focus, exploring not just the fish that occupy the reefs but that vast variety of life-forms – including human – that make the reef a uniquely diverse environment. Developed over three years of field-work, during which time the poet lived and worked alongside marine researchers, Fish Work asks us to reconsider what it means to live with other beings, human and extra-than-human.
'Blending the language of scientific research with the language of popular culture and her familiar conversational register, Fish Work is unlike any other book of poetry currently available in Australia.
'This collection represents the first dedicated poetic investigation into the Great Barrier Reef in a time a climate change, paying particular attention to the far northern Great Barrier Reef, specifically Lizard Island Research Station where the poet spent several months over several years undergoing fieldwork with the scientific researchers in residence.'
Source : publisher's blurb
Notes
-
Dedication:
To the crew at LIRS
and Charlie Maling,
the best research assistant
a person could want.
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Works about this Work
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Islands : New Ecopoetry by Kristen Lang and Caitlin Maling
2021
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , October no. 436 2021; (p. 58-59)
— Review of Fish Work 2021 selected work poetry ; Earth Dwellers 2021 selected work poetry 'New collections from Caitlin Maling and Kristen Lang are situated in vastly different landscapes but pursue similar ideas about the natural world’s fragility and the imminent environmental catastrophe. Maling’s Fish Work, as its title suggests, is primarily interested in marine life and the scientists studying it at Lizard Island Research Station on the Great Barrier Reef, while Lang’s Earth Dwellers explores mountains, caves, and coastlines in Tasmania and Nepal, examining the myriad complexities of ancient ecosystems. Maling’s and Lang’s new books, their fourth collections, urge readers to attend to the work of millennia that has produced these distinctive ecosystems and, in doing so, to appreciate the urgency of protecting them.' (Introduction)
-
Islands : New Ecopoetry by Kristen Lang and Caitlin Maling
2021
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , October no. 436 2021; (p. 58-59)
— Review of Fish Work 2021 selected work poetry ; Earth Dwellers 2021 selected work poetry 'New collections from Caitlin Maling and Kristen Lang are situated in vastly different landscapes but pursue similar ideas about the natural world’s fragility and the imminent environmental catastrophe. Maling’s Fish Work, as its title suggests, is primarily interested in marine life and the scientists studying it at Lizard Island Research Station on the Great Barrier Reef, while Lang’s Earth Dwellers explores mountains, caves, and coastlines in Tasmania and Nepal, examining the myriad complexities of ancient ecosystems. Maling’s and Lang’s new books, their fourth collections, urge readers to attend to the work of millennia that has produced these distinctive ecosystems and, in doing so, to appreciate the urgency of protecting them.' (Introduction)
Awards
- 2022 shortlisted Prime Minister's Literary Awards — Poetry
- 2020 shortlisted Dorothy Hewett Award for an Unpublished Manuscript