AustLit

'If extraordinary things (‘mirabilia’) attract our attention and interest us, it seems inevitable that our perceptions will either occlude or indulge complexities that aren’t obvious, that are correlatives of loss or damage. And part of the poet’s task is to illuminate and possibly contest these subtextual correlatives. In Lisa Gorton’s new collection of poetry, Mirabilia, this is certainly the case — in fact, it is a book of contesting ways of seeing and manners around expression. Visual art can be extraordinary, but its making can so easily have hidden negative consequences. Poetry can give with one line and take with the next. Gorton has worked to create a poetry that critiques its own presence as art, that asks difficult questions about its processes, and analyses the way language has been used to arrive at ‘the poem’. ' (Introduction)

'Mirabilia is the plural form of the Latin mirabile: wonderful thing, marvel. Since the publication of her first book, Press Release, in 2007, Lisa Gorton has cultivated such a voice in Australian poetry. Mordant political wit, formal and thematic bricolage, a liquid control of the line, and the ability to trace patterns across the strata of history and society – to rove between time and the timeless – have long characterised Gorton’s oeuvre. She showcases the full complement of her gifts in this wondrous and disquieting new collection.'  (Introduction)