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'From the 2020 winner of the Thomas Shapcott Award comes a sophisticated, impressive and rich collection of poetry that unpacks the complexity of family, grief, and cross-cultural and queer identity.
'These richly allusive poems weigh violence and tenderness, wound and cure, history and future. Boldly and tenderly, they balance loss and gain, adventure and quiet, as they hum to one another of love and loss. This is a scintillating and exhilarating collection from an accomplished and distinctive new voice.' (Publication summary)
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Works about this Work
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Subtle Imaginations : Resistant Realities Three Recent Collections
2023
single work
review
— Appears in: Meanjin , December vol. 82 no. 4 2023; (p. 172-179)
— Review of Monster Field 2022 selected work poetry ; Mourning Is Women's Business 2022 selected work poetry ; At the Altar of Touch 2022 selected work poetry 'As happens most years, there was a good haul of collections with energy, sustained craft and distinctive perspectives. Nothing explosive - no first performances of 'The Rite of Spring' - but poetry doesn't operate like that. It emerges, rather, through the bubbling accretion of the work of poets maturing at different times, pursuing different possibilities and inventing different styles to articulate them with. There were a small number of high-profile selections this year, such as Sarah Holland-Batt's excellent 'The Jaguar', a handful of Selecteds surveying the poetry of some who have been at the coalface for many decades - Alan Wearne, Jill Jones, Andrew Taylor - together with the regular offering of ambitious and thoughtful collections such as the books reviewed here, which inevitably only represent a selection of those that deserve attention.'(Publication abstract)
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Jennifer Compton Reviews Sarah Holland-Batt and Gavin Yuan Gao
2023
single work
review
— Appears in: Cordite Poetry Review , no. 109 2023;
— Review of The Jaguar 2022 selected work poetry ; At the Altar of Touch 2022 selected work poetry'Both of these considerable books, The Jaguar by Sarah Holland-Batt and At the Altar of Touch by Gavin Yuan Gao, arrived into my hands, out of their padded envelope, with all of the gravitas of prize-winners. They are, both of them, winning books – they shine with sincerity and reach and craft – and they won me over with minimal resistance on my part.' (Introduction)
-
Jennifer Compton Reviews Sarah Holland-Batt and Gavin Yuan Gao
2023
single work
review
— Appears in: Cordite Poetry Review , no. 109 2023;
— Review of The Jaguar 2022 selected work poetry ; At the Altar of Touch 2022 selected work poetry'Both of these considerable books, The Jaguar by Sarah Holland-Batt and At the Altar of Touch by Gavin Yuan Gao, arrived into my hands, out of their padded envelope, with all of the gravitas of prize-winners. They are, both of them, winning books – they shine with sincerity and reach and craft – and they won me over with minimal resistance on my part.' (Introduction)
-
Subtle Imaginations : Resistant Realities Three Recent Collections
2023
single work
review
— Appears in: Meanjin , December vol. 82 no. 4 2023; (p. 172-179)
— Review of Monster Field 2022 selected work poetry ; Mourning Is Women's Business 2022 selected work poetry ; At the Altar of Touch 2022 selected work poetry 'As happens most years, there was a good haul of collections with energy, sustained craft and distinctive perspectives. Nothing explosive - no first performances of 'The Rite of Spring' - but poetry doesn't operate like that. It emerges, rather, through the bubbling accretion of the work of poets maturing at different times, pursuing different possibilities and inventing different styles to articulate them with. There were a small number of high-profile selections this year, such as Sarah Holland-Batt's excellent 'The Jaguar', a handful of Selecteds surveying the poetry of some who have been at the coalface for many decades - Alan Wearne, Jill Jones, Andrew Taylor - together with the regular offering of ambitious and thoughtful collections such as the books reviewed here, which inevitably only represent a selection of those that deserve attention.'(Publication abstract)
Awards
- 2023 winner Prime Minister's Literary Awards — Poetry
- 2023 shortlisted ASAL Awards — ALS Gold Medal
- 2023 shortlisted New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards — UTS Glenda Adams Award for New Writing
- 2023 winner Victorian Premier's Literary Awards — Prize for Poetry
- 2022 highly commended Anne Elder Award
