AustLit

'Feldspar, the new collection of poetry from Brendan Ryan, is unflinching in its focus on rural landscapes, the treatment of farm animals and the humble lives of people often missing from poetry. There are odes to invigilators, truck drivers, a family member who took to walking, laments for dogs and the hardened realities of country living. A sense of longing for and loss from the country is a sub-text for poems that reveal how place is never only a geographical location, but more of a state of mind to be revisited again and again and where belonging can also be found in music, driving or looking at the country you inevitably return to.' (Publication summary)

'I am honoured to be asked to launch Amanda Johnson’s fourth book of poetry, Save As. I have known Amanda for some years, and like the person herself, I found this collection of poetry to be playful, funny, critical, smart and a pleasure to be immersed in.'  (Introduction)

'Australian poet Brendan Ryan speaks about his life in this memoir of "the child, the youth and the young man finding his footing amidst the mysteries of cows and the ruthless cycles of the farm, the dry-eyed melancholy of the milking-shed and the mercy of the weather. Here also are the puzzles of existence contained in parents and siblings, in small things and small talk, and the revelations of the school bus and the school. This is a classic memoir: Brendan Ryan's words come at us directly, and often with startling intensity, from indelible experience. And we feel his need to return." (Don Watson, 2020)' (Publication summary)

'Ryan draws poetry from the tough work of dairy farming and factories, poetry that transcends time and class, it's a joy to read this book, laced with dry humour and a complex humanity. Hard edged yet inviting. Ryan has a light touch and a gathering depth. 'The Lowlands of Moyne' is rich with living, an exciting and positive book, poetry
that glows in the darkness. -Robert Adamson ' (Publication summary)

'After I returned from overseas I caught up with John Forbes at a reading at La Mama where he and Alan Wearne sat in the front row of the small theatre cheering on Emma Lew. I had seen some of her poems published in the journal 'Otis Rush' and I thought that her poems were mysterious and sharp, reminiscent of Gig Ryan's poems. She read to an appreciative crowd and in the break John told me that he was accepting poets to tutor. Since returning from overseas I had been trying to find some direction in my life. I was working part-time and living in a share house in east St Kilda. I hadn't written much while I was overseas for two years, yet I felt that I had a lot of material within me to write about. I was also nervous about what John might think of my poems, as he wasn't exactly a lover of poems about the country. His own poems were urban, cool, mocking and loaded with clever associations. What would he say about my poems of India and overseas?' (Publication abstract)