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'‘Look, look,’ exhorts the opening poem of this dazzling new collection. The discoveries of observation, both physical and intellectual, ravishing and harrowing, are recounted across a broad sweep of experience. Edgar returns habitually to the character of light. Exhibits of the Sun moves from the ghostly Ferris wheel of Saturn’s rings to the beach pavilion wrapped in ochre fog during Sydney’s dust storm, from the glimpses of a lover’s light-shaped body in the passage of the moon to a vision of a whole lifetime between one eye blink and the next. Presiding over all is Walter Benjamin’s Angel of History, swept away into the future as he looks back on the unravelled pageant of humanity.' (Publication summary)
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Works about this Work
-
Stephen Edgar, Exhibits of the Sun (Black Pepper Publishing, 2014)
2017
single work
essay
— Appears in: Transnational Literature , May vol. 9 no. 2 2017; 'Meditations on being and knowing habituate the text, whose speakers struggle to come to terms with their limitations: What can’t I know? What can’t I be? Stephen Edgar draws on a rich body of literature to explore ontologies and phenomenology, and crafts poems that are so dynamic, the reader will find him/herself in the text, throughout the text, as s/he asks new questions alongside the speakers, or perhaps identifies with one of the many voices that surface. Given the scope of philosophical and poetical thought from which the poet draws, not all referenced authors are mentioned explicitly. What one finds, then, is an intricate intertextuality in Edgar’s marvellous and marvelling tenth book, Exhibits of the Sun. In this way, form echoes content, in that what is seen or known is no more and no less important that what eludes one’s grasp.' (Introduction) -
Exhibits of the Sun by Stephen Edgar
2017
single work
essay
— Appears in: Mascara Literary Review , April no. 20 2017;
— Review of Exhibits of the Sun 2014 selected work poetry 'Edgar’s poetry is like that – detailed, deceptive, minutely crafted, significant and changing – implicating both the watcher and the watched. In Sarah Howe’s ‘Two Systems’ lecture at Harvard’s Radcliffe Institute last year, speaking of her own poetry’s slippage between different cultural and historical referents, she cited Heather McHugh’s dictum ‘All poetry is fragment … shaped by its breakages at every turn.’ Edgar’s is like that too: shardish, provisional, ‘hispid’ (to poach one of his clever, obscure words).' (Introduction) -
Lucas Smith Reviews Exhibits of the Sun by Stephen Edgar
2016
single work
review
— Appears in: Plumwood Mountain [Online] , February 2016;
— Review of Exhibits of the Sun 2014 selected work poetry -
Black Pepper Press : Spice and Grit
2015
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Poetry Journal , vol. 5 no. 1 2015; (p. 110-121)
— Review of The Hanging of Jean Lee 1998 single work novel ; The Forest Set Out Like the Night 1995 single work poetry ; Eldershaw 2012 selected work poetry ; Exhibits of the Sun 2014 selected work poetry ; Paths of Flight 2013 selected work poetry ; Folly and Grief 2006 selected work poetry ; Colombine : New and Selected Poems 2010 selected work poetry ; Wimmera 2009 selected work poetry ; Woodsmoke 2013 selected work poetry -
Ahead by Centuries : Stephen Edgar's Exhibits of the Sun
2015
single work
review
— Appears in: Antipodes , December vol. 29 no. 2 2015; (p. 481-484)
— Review of Exhibits of the Sun 2014 selected work poetry
-
Slow Down for a Lyrical Guided Tour of Life
2014
single work
review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 20-21 September 2014; (p. 22)
— Review of Exhibits of the Sun 2014 selected work poetry -
Love Actually...
2014
single work
review
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 27 September 2014; (p. 23)
— Review of A Hunger : With the Simplified World and the Incoming Tide 2014 selected work poetry ; Exhibits of the Sun 2014 selected work poetry -
Sunflowers of a Kind
2014
single work
review
— Appears in: Sydney Review of Books , December 2014;
— Review of Exhibits of the Sun 2014 selected work poetry ; Eldershaw 2012 selected work poetry -
Review : Exhibits of the Sun
2014
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , December no. 367 2014; (p. 57)
— Review of Exhibits of the Sun 2014 selected work poetry -
Vivian Smith, of Evan Jones, Selected Poems, and Stephen Edgar, Exhibits of the Sun
2015
single work
review
— Appears in: Southerly , vol. 75 no. 1 2015; (p. 223-227)
— Review of Selected Poems 2014 selected work poetry ; Exhibits of the Sun 2014 selected work poetry -
Double Date for Poets Named in Literary Shortlist
2015
single work
column
— Appears in: The Australian , 24 November 2015; (p. 15) -
Stephen Edgar, Exhibits of the Sun (Black Pepper Publishing, 2014)
2017
single work
essay
— Appears in: Transnational Literature , May vol. 9 no. 2 2017; 'Meditations on being and knowing habituate the text, whose speakers struggle to come to terms with their limitations: What can’t I know? What can’t I be? Stephen Edgar draws on a rich body of literature to explore ontologies and phenomenology, and crafts poems that are so dynamic, the reader will find him/herself in the text, throughout the text, as s/he asks new questions alongside the speakers, or perhaps identifies with one of the many voices that surface. Given the scope of philosophical and poetical thought from which the poet draws, not all referenced authors are mentioned explicitly. What one finds, then, is an intricate intertextuality in Edgar’s marvellous and marvelling tenth book, Exhibits of the Sun. In this way, form echoes content, in that what is seen or known is no more and no less important that what eludes one’s grasp.' (Introduction)
Awards
- 2015 shortlisted Prime Minister's Literary Awards — Poetry
Last amended 23 Nov 2015 15:45:37