AustLit

'Philip Hodgins was the most loved poet of his generation, whose life was cut tragically short. “If he had lived as long as his admired Goethe, he would probably have been Goethe.” – Clive James.

'The fourth book in the Braziller series of Australian poets. Philip Hodgins is unique in his unflinchingly honest and mordant account of country life in Australia. In a vivid and lucid style, his astonishing poems reveal the complexities, depths and urgencies of living at the edge of life and death. Renowned for his sophisticated yet understated craftsmanship, Hodgins writes with subtlety, humor and heartbreaking intensity. Edited and with an introduction by American poet and poetry scholar, Paul Kane.' (Publication summary)

'The third in Braziller's Series of Australian Poets, Judith Beveridge engages the world in ways that open up larger perspectives and deeper understandings. As the critic Clive James notes, Beveridge s work displays unfailing dignity of movement and quiet splendour. Whether in relation to the natural world around us or to our inner world of intellect and emotion, Beveridge s poems call us to account, exalting our capacity for knowledge and insisting upon the pleasures and responsibilities of attentiveness."' (Publication summary)

'The Braziller Series of Australian Poets serves to introduce American readers to the stunning poetry from some of Australia’s most notable contemporary poets. General editor, Paul Kane, is a professor at Vassar College and an American poet. He is an eminent critic and scholar of Australian literature. George Braziller, Inc. is honored to work in association with the Australian Council for the Arts on the publication of this important series.' (Publisher's summary)

'Robert Gray has been hailed as “one of the contemporary masters of poetry in English” (Les Murray). This selection of Gray’s finest poems demonstrates his extraordinary capacity to see the world in luminous detail, rendering it with radiant intensity. Both philosophical and sensuous, this is work of remarkable originality.

'Robert Gray is an award-winning poet, widely known throughout Australia and the rest of the world. This selection is of his finest poems spanning a forty-five year career. He lives in Sydney, Australia.' (Publication summary)

'The invasion of East Timor, the sinking of the Titanic, Freud's encounter with an "imbecile dwarf," astronomy, pregnancy, Tiananmen Square, a remote Aboriginal community: these historical episodes and narratives inspire the fourteen superb and engaging short stories in The House of Breathing, winner of four major Australian literary prizes. Concerned with the extremes of human experience, Jones's stories give fictional form to a wide range of philosophical concerns: cultural imperialism, political and sexual repression, the impact of modern technology on culture and consciousness.'

Source: Publisher's blurb (US ed.)

'The final part of a trilogy, drawing on a tradition of tribal poetry and belief. The author uses the green ant, Gabo Djaro, as the basis for his allegory about the ravishment of aborigine land spoiled by the white man's uranium mining and tests for nuclear weapons. B. Wongar is the author of "The Track to Bralgu", "Walg" and "Karan".' (Publication summary)

'Twenty years ago, when I first arrived on the plains, I kept my eyes open. I looked for anything in the landscape that seemed to hint at some elaborate meaning behind appearances.

'There is no book in Australian literature like The Plains. In the two decades since its first publication, this haunting novel has earned its status as a classic. A nameless young man arrives on the plains and begins to document the strange and rich culture of the plains families. As his story unfolds, the novel becomes, in the words of Murray Bail, ‘a mirage of landscape, memory, love and literature itself’.' (Publication summary : Text Classics)

'A Woman of the Future, first published in 1979, was David Ireland’s best-selling sixth novel and his third to win the Miles Franklin Award.

'An imaginative tour de force, it is the story of the young life of Anthea Hunt—from conception to sexual awakening. It is controversial and brilliant, and unlike anything else in Australian literature.' (Publication summary : Text Classics)

'Dante and Johnno are unlikely childhood friends, growing up in the bustle of steamy, wartime Brisbane. Later, as teenagers, they learn about love and life amidst the city's pubs and public libraries, backyards and brothels, Moreton Bay figs and tennis parties. As adults, they make the great pilgrimage overseas and maintain an uneasy friendship as they seek to build their lives.

'An affectionate and bittersweet portrait, Johnno brilliantly recreates the sleazy, tropical half-city that was Brisbane and captures a generation locked in combat with the elusive Australian dream.'

Source: Publisher's blurb (Penguin).

'In prose that is both elegant and lyrical, David Malouf departs from the little-known facts of Ovid's exile beyond the pale of civilization to create a deeply moving novel of extraordinary beauty. An outcast in a vast wasteland at the edge of the Black Sea, Ovid discovers a feral child. As he teaches the boy to speak the language of the civilized world, the child tutors him in his own tongue, the language of nature, and the once barren landscape begins to resonate with meaning.' (Publisher's blurb)