AustLit logo
Andrew Sant Andrew Sant i(A6025 works by) (a.k.a. Andrew John Sant)
Born: Established: 1950 London,
c
England,
c
c
United Kingdom (UK),
c
Western Europe, Europe,
;
Gender: Male
Arrived in Australia: 1962
Heritage: English
The material on this page is available to AustLit subscribers. If you are a subscriber or are from a subscribing organisation, please log in to gain full access. To explore options for subscribing to this unique teaching, research, and publishing resource for Australian culture and storytelling, please contact us or find out more.

Works By

Preview all
Islanders Andrew Sant , sequence poetry
1 A Diaristic Quality Andrew Sant , single work review
— Review of Mines Jennifer Maiden , 1999 selected work poetry
1 1 y separately published work icon Near the Border : New and Selected Poems Andrew Sant , Glebe : Puncher and Wattmann , 2023 26364131 2023 selected work poetry

'If, as has been said, Sant is "an important, innovative poet" with a "penetrating eye for the hidden geometries of meaning" it is because, whatever his subject, the vision it draws out of him is there to be his and the subject, like the insight, has come as naturally to him as leaves are to trees.' - Elizabeth Knottenbelt, Agenda

'Andrew Sant writes intellectually compelling and formally taut poems ... made possible when an exceptional facility with language collides with everyday subjects.' - Brian Henry, Poetry Nation Review

'Sant's accomplished, cosmopolitan style gains from repeated exposure. "Pleasure" has been a word much trivialised of late when talking about poetry, but Sant's poems provide that all-too-rare commodity.' - Nicholas Birns, Verse

'In what is now a significant body of work we should see Andrew Sant, in this new book, in its approachable eloquence and its formal and musical intelligence as, in his phrase, a new "passport into immersion". - Adam Phillips, The Guardian' (Publication summary)

1 Strange Blindness i "Suddenly, a man is running", Andrew Sant , 2022 single work poetry
— Appears in: Meanjin , September vol. 81 no. 3 2022; (p. 127)
1 On Getting a Diagnosis Andrew Sant , 2022 single work essay
— Appears in: Meanjin , Autumn vol. 81 no. 1 2022; Meanjin Online 2022;

'For more than two years now I have been receiving welcome phone calls from a woman, whom I barely know, with an attractive voice. After some polite preliminaries, she asks me a lot of personal, anatomical questions—the sort one’s partner would likely also be able to answer for her. My responses to her enquiries are in no way shielded; in fact, I have been unabashedly open with her. We have a few laughs. No longer. These quarterly exchanges have now come to an end. Though I could take some comfort in knowing she’ll give me another pre-arranged call in about a distant six months’ time, as is the routine.'  (Introduction)

1 Remote Intersections i "A raptor, way above the fences, sees", Andrew Sant , 2021 single work poetry
— Appears in: Meanjin , September / Spring vol. 80 no. 3 2021; (p. 119)
1 Above the Equator i "What's so appealing is how like and unlike home this place is–", Andrew Sant , 2020 single work poetry
— Appears in: The Anthology of Australian Prose Poetry 2020; (p. 146)
1 y separately published work icon The Hallelujah Shadow Andrew Sant , Glebe : Puncher and Wattmann , 2020 20769752 2020 selected work essay

'He is a writer who doesn’t want to write, a traveller who ignores the lessons of a serious earthquake, an urbanite who sees the justly vilified activity of smoking as a solution to social atomisation. Andrew Sant’s new essays are those of a contrarian with a darkly amused view about the limits of human ingenuity and, as a consequence, humanity’s eventual extinction. This is a various, oblique, upbeat collection—sixteen essays as informative as they are entertaining.'

Source : publisher's blurb

1 On Looking into Mirrors : Some Reflections on the Passage of Time Andrew Sant , 2020 single work autobiography
— Appears in: Griffith Review , April no. 68 2020; (p. 190-192)
'You look into the mirror. There are a number around the house every now and then one of them becomes an attraction. Your skin is clear. Your hair is thick. The face looking back at you is as it should be when you are about to step outside. A bit serious perhaps. You think, while somehow entranced by the enigma of yourself in reverse image, that you'd better get a move on - but you don't think, in this, the twentieth year of your life, goodness, don't I look young. That's one thing, in front of a mirror, you have never thought and, personal history suggests, vanity notwithstanding, won't ever.' (Introduction)
1 Medical Developments i "The stainless steel instruments, as shiny", Andrew Sant , 2020 single work poetry
— Appears in: Meanjin , Autumn vol. 79 no. 1 2020;
1 On the Record Andrew Sant , 2019 single work essay
— Appears in: Island , no. 157 2019; (p. 103-109)
'It's 40 years since Andrew Sant, a founding editor of Island, launched this magazine's first issue on a wintry Hobart afternoon. Her he shares a few of his encounter with literary luminaries from near and far.' 
1 y separately published work icon Baffling Gravity Andrew Sant , Waratah : Puncher and Wattmann , 2019 16889619 2019 selected work poetry

'Gravity as a physical influence, the weight of gravity, and gravity of thought and action are central to Andrew Sant's new collection of poems - and so too is the means of baffling gravity, not the least by the deployment of wit. 

'Gravity here is also baffling in the alternative sense, as a force or as a theory, which summons perplexity. These poems, wide ranging in time and place, are richly textured investigations of the world, its terrain and its people, by an alert, often restless, informed observer.' (Publication summary)

1 On Being Sincere Andrew Sant , 2018 single work autobiography
— Appears in: Southerly , vol. 78 no. 2 2018; (p. 125-133)

'When I am in the vicinity of the bench - it's in a quiet) shady Spot - here in inner Melbourne, I'm on my way to the supermarket. The first time I noticed the plaque and then stopped to read it - a few months ago, about four years after the death of Henry Joseph Kata - I was so moved by its simple eloquence, sincerity and the import of the loss on the person whose words they are, that I suddenly entered into a kind of sympathetic mourning and hung around for some time out of respect. The bench may not have been there for long, council approvals being notoriously slow, and since the route I take to the supermarket is relatively new to me, I can't say when the bench was first put in place. I'd go for recently. I'd guess there was a quiet ceremony, in attendance the deceased's companion and those closest to, I am assuming, her. Attached to the slats of the bench, next to the plaque, there is always a sprig of fresh rosemary. The soulmate's bereaved returns often, possibly daily and, I expect, sits on the bench with her memories. Communes. Although the bench is for public use in a public space, a bench among other benches placed around the large, leafy park in positions where shade or a broad view is maximised, I would feel as if I was invading another's intimate space if ever I sat on it. So I don't. Maybe, one day, grocery bag in hand, I'll see from a distance Henry Joseph Kata's soulmate attaching a fresh sprig of rosemary or quietly sitting out the afternoon, alone.' (Publication abstract)

1 On Regret Andrew Sant , 2018 single work column
— Appears in: Meanjin , Autumn vol. 77 no. 1 2018; (p. 18-21)

'‘Regrets I’ve had a few / But then again too few to mention’, the famous song declares. It is enduringly popular: the singer did it his way. This hymn to individualism I heard broadcast the other day to us shoppers, one familiar song following another, in a place of conformity and predictability, a large supermarket, where occasionally a distracted customer, oblivious to others, will sing along or hum. I didn’t—I’m reasonably sure—in that somnambulistic state generated by supermarkets, as shoppers drift down one aisle after another, sing snatches of ‘My Way’ but I did, masked no doubt by an expressionless face, wonder about regret.'(Introduction)

1 On Swimming in the Sea Andrew Sant , 2017 single work essay
— Appears in: Meanjin Online 2017;
1 The Night Journeys i "Nightlights strobe through the window’s", Andrew Sant , 2017 single work poetry
— Appears in: Meanjin , Spring vol. 76 no. 3 2017; (p. 31)
1 The Great Ocean Road i "A trail of ants", Andrew Sant , 2016 single work poetry
— Appears in: Antipodes , December vol. 30 no. 2 2016; (p. 411)
1 Vampire Days i "Sixteen’s the vampire age for kids in summer cemeteries as heat impales suburbia.", Andrew Sant , 2016 single work poetry
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 15-16 October 2016; (p. 23) The Weekend Australian , 22-23 October 2016; (p. 21)
1 4 y separately published work icon How to Proceed Andrew Sant , Nottingham : Shoestring Press (UK) , 2016 10165480 2016 selected work single work poetry

'The essays in this mischievously titled collection, How to Proceed, are, in the author’s own words, ‘apparently offhand, informal, digressive and unashamedly personal’. Perhaps, he suggests in the introduction, they are not really essays at all. They explore subjects ranging from the nature of time to the pleasures (and pitfalls) of walking, the mysteries of marriage to the matter of taking risks. Trust is scrutinized and the gaining of self-knowledge tested. Always lively, often amusing, sometimes poignant, these verbal excursions make clear that, in most circumstances, discovering how to proceed is rarely less than tricky. Written with a poet’s eye for detail – the author is a distinguished poet – this collection, whether focusing on the perils of modern transport or the potential satisfactions of curiosity, contains many surprising departures.' (Publication summary)

1 Quarry i "Where the quarry you've come across", Andrew Sant , 2015 single work poetry
— Appears in: Island , no. 142 2015; (p. 103)
X