The Best Australian Poems 2013
Page 16
Chris Edwards is the Sydney-based author of A Fluke (Monogene and Jacket, 2006) and People of Earth (Vagabond Press, 2011). His poems are sometimes built around (mis)quotations from what he calls ‘sources’ – in this case, Timothy Ferris, Coming of Age in the Milky Way, and P. D. James, A Dalgliesh Trilogy.
Anne Elvey is author of three chapbooks, including Bent toward the thing (2012). She has a full-length collection forthcoming from Five Islands Press in 2014. Anne is managing editor of Plumwood Mountain: An Australian Journal of Ecopoetry and Ecopoetics and holds honorary appointments at Monash University and MCD University of Divinity.
Russell Erwin farms in the Southern Tablelands of New South Wales, near where wind towers are crowding the sky, ‘farming’ it.
Diane Fahey’s The Wing Collection (Puncher & Wattmann, 2011) was shortlisted for the 2012 Adelaide Festival of Arts’ John Bray Poetry Award. Her most recent collection is The Stone Garden (Clouds of Magellan, 2013). Diane has won the Newcastle Poetry Prize, the Wesley Michel Wright Award and the ACT Judith Wright Poetry Prize. She took part in the Australian Poetry Tour of Ireland in May/June, 2013.
Michael Farrell was born in Bombala, New South Wales, and lives in Melbourne. His latest book is Open Sesame (Giramondo, 2012).
Susan Fealy is a poet and clinical psychologist. This year her poetry has appeared in Australian Love Poems 2013, Australian Poetry Journal, Eureka Street, Mascara Literary Review and Rabbit, and was awarded the 2013 NSW Society of Women Writers National Poetry Prize. She is working towards her first full-length collection.
Anna Fern lives and works as an editor in Melbourne. She crosses between spoken word and sound poetry, and loves plucking sounds from unlikely objects. Her new CD Mouthful is available at annafern@alphalink.com.au.
Liam Ferney lives in Brisbane and works in media management. His second full-length collection of poetry, Boom, was published by Grand Parade Poets in 2013. He was Poetry Editor of Cordite Poetry Review in 2004–05.
Toby Fitch is based in Sydney. His book Rawshock (Puncher & Wattmann) was co-winner of the 2012 Grace Leven Prize for Poetry. He is currently the poetry reviews editor for Southerly and a doctoral candidate at the University of Sydney. He is working on his next book of poems, a book of inversions.
Lionel G. Fogarty was born in 1958 at Barambah, now known as Cherbourg Aboriginal Reserve, in the South Burnett region of southern Queensland. His first collection of poetry, Kargun, was published in 1980. He has since published eight collections, as well as a children’s book, Booyooburra, a traditional Wakka Wakka story.
Angela Gardner has written two books of poetry: Views of the Hudson (Shearsman Press, 2009), and the 2006 Arts Queensland Thomas Shapcott Poetry Prize winner Parts of Speech (University of Queensland Press, 2007). She is currently Australian Poetry’s Café Poet in Residence at the Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane.
Claire Gaskin’s poetry collection A Bud was shortlisted in the John Bray SA Festival Award for Literature in 2008. She has been teaching creative writing and literature for twenty-five years. Her new collection, entitled Paperweight, is forthcoming with Hunter Publishers in its Australian Poetry Series 2013.
Jane Gibian is a poet and librarian whose publications include tidemark (Vagabond Press, 2013) and Ardent (Giramondo, 2007). Her work has been widely anthologised, most recently in Thirty Australian Poets (UQP, 2011) and Australian Poetry Since 1788 (UNSW Press, 2011).
Robert Gray has recently published, with George Braziller in New York, a selection of his poems, Daylight Saving. His collected poems, Cumulus, was published in Australia in 2012.
Tim Grey is a writer, journalist and photographer from Melbourne. His poetry has appeared in publications such as Southerly, Rabbit and Mascara.
Poet and essayist Martin Harrison’s most recent book of poems is Living Things: Five Poems (Vagabond Press, 2013). His volume of selected poems is Wild Bees: New and Selected Poems (UWA Press, 2008). He has been widely translated into Chinese, and a French edition of his work is forthcoming.
Kevin Hart’s most recent collection of poems is Morning Knowledge (Notre Dame University Press, 2011). He is currently completing a new book of poems, Barefoot. He teaches at the University of Virginia.
John Hawke is a Sydney poet, currently teaching in the English department at Monash University.
Paul Hetherington is the author of ten collections of poetry, including Six Different Windows (UWA Publishing, 2013). He was recently shortlisted for the 2013 Newcastle Poetry Prize and longlisted for the 2013 Montreal International Poetry Prize. He edited three volumes of Donald Friend’s diaries and is head of the International Poetry Studies Institute.
Fiona Hile is the author of a chapbook, The Family Idiot, and a full-length collection, Novelties. In 2012 she won the Island Gwen Harwood Poetry Prize and was awarded second place in the Overland Judith Wright Poetry Prize. Her poems have been published in the Age, Overland, Shearsman, Cordite and elsewhere.
Matt Holden is a freelance journalist and editor who also writes poetry and short fiction. He lives in Melbourne.
Sarah Holland-Batt’s first book, Aria (UQP, 2008), was the recipient of the Thomas Shapcott Prize, the Arts ACT Judith Wright Poetry Prize and the F. A. W. Anne Elder Award. In late 2013 she will take up a MacDowell Fellowship in New Hampshire.
L. K. Holt’s first collection, Man Wolf Man, received the Kenneth Slessor Prize, and her second, Patience, Mutiny, received the Grace Leven Prize. Stages of Balthazar was published as a chapbook by Vagabond Press: part one includes within the chorus some loose adaptations of lines from Rilke’s Sonnets to Orpheus.
Hu Xian, born in 1966 and now resident in Nanjing, China, has won many major poetry prizes, such as the Wen Yiduo Poetry Prize, and published a number of poetry books, such as zhenyu (Shower) and shinian deng (A Decade of Lamps).
Darby Hudson is a writer/illustrator from Melbourne and a regular contributor to Troublemag.com. He also had a poem in The Best Australian Poems 2012. www.darbyhudson.com.
Andy Jackson’s Among the Regulars (papertiger, 2010) was shortlisted for the Kenneth Slessor Prize and Highly Commended in the Anne Elder Award. Recent poems have appeared in Meanjin, The Best Australian Poems 2012 and Medical Journal of Australia. He is currently writing a series of portrait poems of people with Marfan Syndrome. amongtheregulars.wordpress.com.
Clive James is an Australian writer who lives in Cambridge, England. His poem ‘Leçons de Ténèbres’ was first published in the New Yorker. His latest book is a translation of the Divine Comedy.
Ella Jeffery’s poetry and short fiction have appeared in Cordite, Voiceworks, Stilts and other journals. She was born on the far north coast of New South Wales and recently graduated from Queensland University of Technology’s creative writing program.
A. Frances Johnson’s poetry has appeared in The Best Australian Poems 2009, 2010 and 2011. She has published two books of poetry, The Pallbearer’s Garden (Whitmore Press, 2008) and The Wind-up Birdman of Moorabool Street (Puncher & Wattmann, 2012), which received the 2012 Michel Wesley Wright Prize. She teaches at the University of Melbourne.
Jill Jones’ recent books include Ash is Here, So are Stars (2012) and Dark Bright Doors (2010). An e-chapbook, even if the signal fails, is forthcoming from Black Rider Press, and a new full-length book, The Beautiful Anxiety, is due from Puncher & Wattmann in early 2014. She is a member of the J. M. Coetzee Centre for Creative Practice, University of Adelaide.
Paul Kane has published five collections of poems and, most recently, a CD: Seven Catastrophes in Four Movements (Farpoint Recordings). He serves as poetry editor for Antipodes, artistic director for the Mildura Writers Festival, and general editor for The Braziller Series of Australian Poets. He teaches at Vassar.
Carmen Leigh Keates was shortlisted for the 2013 ACU Literature Prize, the 2012 Whitmore Press Manuscript Prize and the 2011 Alec Bol
ton Prize for an Unpublished Manuscript. Some of her poems appear in recent issues of the Australian Poetry Journal. Keates is completing her PhD at the University of Queensland.
Christopher (Kit) Kelen is a poet, scholar and visual artist who shuttles between his home at Markwell via Bulahdelah and a position as Professor of English at the University of Macau in South China. His next volume of poems, Scavenger’s Season, will be published by Puncher & Wattman in 2014.
John Kinsella the author of numerous volumes of poetry including Armour (Picador, 2011) and Jam Tree Gully (W. W. Norton, 2012). He is a Fellow of Churchill College, Cambridge University, and a Professorial Research Fellow at the University of Western Australia. He is poetry editor for Island magazine.
Andy Kissane was the winner of the 2013 Fish International Poetry Prize and is the 2013 Coriole National Wine Poet, with six of his poems featuring on the back label of the vinyard’s cabernet shiraz. His fourth collection of poetry, Radiance, will be published by Puncher & Wattmann in 2014. andykissane.com.
Shari Kocher’s poetry is widely published in literary journals in Australia and elsewhere. Her first book, The Non-Sequitur of Snow, is forthcoming with Puncher & Wattmann. Her current creative project Sonqoqui comprises part of her doctoral research toward her PhD candidature at Melbourne University. Shari lives in the Yarra Valley. Her website is a work in progress: www.carapacedreaming.wordpress.
Christopher Konrad completed his PhD in creative writing at Edith Cowan University in 2012. His work has been published in Sandfire (Sunline Press, 2011) and in many journals and online, and has won the Tom Collins Prize (2009) and the Todhunter Literary Award (2012). He currently works with a migrant settlement service in Perth.
Jo Langdon is the author of a poetry chapbook, Snowline (Whitmore Press, 2012). She lives in Geelong and is currently completing a PhD at Deakin University.
Anthony Lawrence’s most recent collection of poems is Signal Flare (Puncher & Wattmann, 2013). He teaches Creative Writing and Reading & Writing Poetry at Griffith University, Gold Coast, and lives at Casuarina, on the far north coast of New South Wales.
Michelle Leber is a Melbourne poet. Her forthcoming book is a mythography in verse based on the Yellow Emperor of China (27th Century BCE), to be published by Five Islands Press in 2014.
Geoffrey Lehmann’s Poems 1957–2013 will be published by UWA Publishing in 2014. He co-edited (with Robert Gray) Australian Poetry Since 1788, published by UNSW Press, which was among the Economist’s best books of 2011.
Bella Li is a Melbourne editor and PhD candidate, and a managing co-editor at Five Islands Press. Her poems have been published in Meanjin, Cordite, Otoliths, Mascara Literary Review, Peril Magazine, Rabbit, The Best Australian Poems 2012 (Black Inc., 2012) and Contemporary Asian Australian Poets (Puncher & Wattmann, 2013). Her chapbook Maps, Cargo is forthcoming from Vagabond Press.
Rosanna Licari’s poetry collection An Absence of Saints won the 2009 Thomas Shapcott Poetry Prize, the 2010 Anne Elder Award and was shortlisted for the 2010/2011 Mary Gilmore Award. Her poems won the 2011 Wesley Michel Wright Prize. In June 2013 she was a fellow at Hawthornden International Retreat in Scotland.
Kate Lilley has published two books of poetry, Versary (Salt, 2002) and Ladylike (UWAP, 2012), and the Vagabond Press chapbooks Round Vienna (2011) and Realia (2013). She is an associate professor in the English Department at the University of Sydney.
Debbie Lim was born in Sydney. Her awards include the Rosemary Dobson Prize (2009). A chapbook, Beastly Eye, was published by Vagabond Press in 2012. She is currently working on her first full-length collection.
Cameron Lowe’s poetry collections are the chapbook Throwing Stones at the Sun (2005) and Porch Music (2010), both published by Whitmore Press; a third collection, Circle Work, is forthcoming from Puncher & Wattmann. He is currently completing a PhD at the University of Melbourne. He lives in Geelong.
Kent MacCarter is a writer and editor in Melbourne. He’s the author of two poetry collections – In the Hungry Middle of Here (Transit Lounge, 2009) and Ribosome Spreadsheet (Picaro, 2011) – with a third, Sputnik’s Cousin, coming out in 2014. MacCarter is active in Melbourne PEN. He is managing editor of Cordite Poetry Review.
Paul Magee is the author of Cube Root of Book (John Leonard Press, 2006); his second book of poetry is forthcoming from John Leonard Press. He also wrote the surreal ethnography From Here to Tierra del Fuego (University of Illinois Press, 2000). Paul studied in Melbourne, Moscow, San Salvador and Sydney, and teaches poetry at the University of Canberra.
Mark Mahemoff has been writing poetry since the mid-1980s. In 2000 he completed an MA in writing at the University of Technology, Sydney. He has published three books of poetry, the most recent being Traps and Sanctuaries (Puncher & Wattmann, 2008). He also plays drums and percussion in a variety of musical projects.
Jennifer Maiden has published seventeen poetry collections and two novels. She has received many awards, including the Age Poetry Book of the Year (twice), the overall Age Book of the Year, the C. J. Dennis and the Christopher Brennan. She is the only writer to have been awarded the Kenneth Slessor three times. Her latest collection, Liquid Nitrogen, was published by Giramondo in 2012.
Caitlin Maling has published poetry, non-fiction and criticism throughout Australia and the United States. Her first collection, Conversations I’ve Never Had, is forthcoming in 2015 from Fremantle Press. Originally from Western Australia, she is currently based in Houston, Texas.
David Malouf is a poet and author of many books, including An Imaginary Life, Harland’s Half Acre, The Conversations at Curlow Creek, The Great World, Remembering Babylon, Typewriter Music and Ransom. He lives in Sydney.
David McCooey is a prize-winning poet and critic. He is Personal Chair at Deakin University in Geelong, where he lives.
Mal McKimmie’s first volume of poetry, Poetileptic, was published in 2005 by Five Islands Press. His second full collection, The Brokenness Sonnets I–III & Other Poems, also published by Five Islands Press, won the 2012 Age Poetry Book of the Year.
Ainslee Meredith is a poet and cultural conservation student from Melbourne. Her poems have appeared in several print and online literary journals, and she is a past recipient of the John Marsden Prize for Young Australian Writers. Her first collection, Pinetorch, was published in 2013 by Express Media/Australian Poetry.
Kate Middleton is a poet and essayist. Her first collection of verse, Fire Season (Giramondo, 2009), won the WA Premier’s Award for Poetry and was shortlisted for the Age Poetry Book of the Year. Her latest book is Ephemeral Waters (Giramondo, 2013).
Peter Minter is a leading Australian poet, editor and poetry scholar. He is poetry editor of Overland and a senior lecturer in English at the University of Sydney, where he works in environmental poetics.
Paul Mitchell has published two poetry collections, Minorphysics (IP, 2003) and Awake Despite the Hour (Five Islands Press, 2007). He was a judge of the 2013 Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for Poetry. www.paul-mitchell.com.au.
Les Murray’s work has been published in many languages. He has won numerous literary awards, including the T. S. Eliot Award (1996) and the 1999 Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry, on the recommendation of Ted Hughes.
David Musgrave is the publisher at Puncher & Wattmann. He is a poet and novelist and teaches creative writing at the University of Newcastle.
Nguyen Tien Hoang is a Melbourne poet and translator. He is on the editorial panel of literary e-magazine damau.org. His most recent publication is Years, Elegy (Vagabond Press, 2012).
Jal Nicholl lives in Melbourne, where he writes and paints as much as his time and work commitments allow.
Ella O’Keefe lives in Melbourne. She is a doctoral candidate at Deakin University and is writing on the poetry of Barbara Guest and Veronica Forrest-Thomson. Her radio work has been broadcast on 2SER FM, FBI Radio and
Radio National. Her poems have been published in Cordite, Steamer and the electronic collection Mud Map: Australian Women’s Experimental Writing.
Louise Oxley has published two collections, Compound Eye (2003) and Buoyancy (2008). Buoyancy was shortlisted in the 2008 WA Premier’s Literary Awards. In 2011 she was writer-in-residence at the University of Prince Edward Island, Canada. She spends as much time as she can in the peaceful D’Entrecasteaux Channel, south of Hobart, which is the setting for ‘The Bat Corridor’.
Geoff Page is a Canberra-based poet. His most recent books are Cloudy Nouns (Picaro Press, 2012) and 1953 (UQP, 2013). His new books Improving the News (Pitt Street Poetry) and New Selected Poems (Puncher & Wattmann) are forthcoming.
π.O. was raised in inner-city Melbourne. Occupation: draughtsman. Disposition and history: anarchist. His collection of poems is Big Numbers (Collective Effort Press, 2008). He has represented Australia at many international festivals and is editor of the experimental magazine Unusual Work.
Felicity Plunkett’s Vanishing Point (UQP, 2009) won the Arts Queensland Thomas Shapcott Prize and was shortlisted for the WA Premier’s Book Awards, the Anne Elder Award and the Judith Wright Prize. Seastrands was published in Vagabond Press’s Rare Object Series. She is the editor of Thirty Australian Poets (UQP, 2011).
Born in Brisbane in 1929, Peter Porter lived most of his life in England. He received, among other awards, the Forward Poetry Prize, the Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry, the Philip Hodgins Memorial Medal and the Age Book of the Year. Peter Porter died on 23 April 2010. This poem is published with the permission of his estate.
Claire Potter was born in Perth, WA. She has published three poetry collections, Swallow (Five Islands Press), N’ombre (Vagabond Press) and In front of a comma (Poets Union). She lives in London.
Judith Rodriguez has been publishing poems since the 1960s. Her latest are in the chapbook The Manatee (Picaro Press, 2007) and The Hanging of Minnie Thwaites (Arcade Books, 2012), and she edited The Soliloquist (Melbourne Shakespeare Society, 2013). She lives in Melbourne and works for International PEN.