The Best Australian Poems 2011

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The Best Australian Poems 2011 Page 14

by John Tranter


  Fred Curtis is a Melbourne writer. His works include the booklet Prosody: a Poetry Workshop (Melbourne Poets Union, 2007). He holds a master’s degree in creative writing from the University of Melbourne.

  Toby Davidson is a West Australian poet who lectures in Australian literature at Macquarie University. He edited Francis Webb’s Collected Poems (UWA Publishing, 2011) and his book Born of Fire, Possessed by Darkness: Mysticism and Australian Poetry is forthcoming from Cambria Press in 2012.

  Bruce Dawe is the author of twenty books, including thirteen volumes of poetry. He was awarded the Order of Australia in 1992 for his contribution to Australian Literature. His latest book is Slo-Mo Tsunami and Other Poems (Puncher & Wattmann, 2011).

  Sarah Day’s most recent book is Grass Notes (Brandl & Schlesinger, 2009). Awards for her work include the Queensland Premier’s Judith Wright Calanthe, the ACT Judith Wright, the University of Melbourne Wesley Michelle Wright Prize and the Anne Elder Award.

  Suzanne Edgar’s poetry collection The Painted Lady (Ginninderra Press, 2006) was shortlisted for the ACT’s Best Book of the Year, 2007. Her forthcoming collection is Talking Late.

  Brook Emery directed the Australian Poetry Festival in 2008 and 2010. Awards for his poetry include the Judith Wright Calanthe Prize for poetry, the Bruce Dawe National Poetry Prize and the Max Harris Award. His most recent collection is Uncommon Light (FIP, 2007).

  Kate Fagan is a poet, editor and songwriter whose books include The Long Moment (Salt Publishing, 2002). A new collection, First Light, is forthcoming from Giramondo in 2012. Kate lectures in literature at the University of Western Sydney. (katefagan.com)

  Diane Fahey’s latest book is The Wing Collection: New & Selected Poems (Puncher & Wattmann, 2011). Her collection Sea Wall and River Light (Five Islands Press, 2006) won the ACT Judith Wright Poetry Award.

  Jeltje Fanoy (jeltje) has authored collections including Catching worms (1993) and Poetry Live in the House (2004). She convened poetry performances at La Mama Poetica from 2004 until 2010 and is writing an account of her family’s Dutch colonial experience.

  Michael Farrell has written a Master’s on the billycan in Australian poetry. His most recent publication is thempark (Book Thug, 2011). He is the current commentator on Australian poetry for Jacket2.

  Johanna Featherstone is the founder and artistic director of The Red Room Company. Her most recent chapbook is Felt (Vagabond Press, 2010). She is a research associate with the University of Western Sydney.

  Liam Ferney is a Brisbane poet. His most recent poetry collection is Popular Mechanics (Interactive Press, 2004). He has lived in the United States, South Korea and the United Kingdom.

  Toby Fitch is an author and musician who was born in London and raised in Sydney. His poetry collections include the chapbook Everyday Static (Vagabond Press, 2010) and a forthcoming volume through Puncher & Wattman. (tobyfitch.blogspot.com)

  William Fox is a Melbourne poet whose work has appeared in the Age, Meanjin, Overland, and various other print and online journals.

  Andrew Galan has been published in BLOCK, The Delinquent, the Eve’s Harvest anthology, Streetcake, Verity La and REM Magazine. He co-founded and runs Canberra poetry slam BAD!SLAM!NO!BISCUIT! at the Phoenix pub.

  Angela Gardner is the author of two poetry collections: Views of the Hudson (Shearsman Books, 2009), written during a Churchill Fellowship visit to New York, and Parts of Speech (UQP, 2007), winner of the 2006 Arts Queensland Thomas Shapcott Poetry Prize. She is also a visual artist.

  Carolyn Gerrish is a Sydney poet. She has published five collections of poetry. Her most recent is The View from the Moon (Island Press, 2011). She currently teaches creative writing at the WEA and is working on her sixth collection.

  Jane Gibian’s publications include her collection Ardent (Giramondo, 2007) and small adjustments and other poems (Wagtail poetry magazine, Picaro Press, 2008). Her work has been widely anthologised.

  Geoff Goodfellow’s latest collection is Waltzing with Jack Dancer: a slow dance with cancer (Wakefield Press, 2011). This is his tenth book, most of them going into multiple print runs. (geoffgoodfellow.com)

  Lisa Gorton lives in Melbourne. Her first poetry collection, Press Release (Giramondo, 2007), won the Victorian Premier’s Prize for Poetry. Her second poetry collection, Hotel Hyperion, is forthcoming from Giramondo in 2012.

  Robert Gray is co-editor of the anthology Australian Poetry Since 1788. His Collected Poems will be appearing early next year.

  Kathryn Hamann lives in Blackburn with her family. Her seventh collection is A Slight Fuzzing of Perspective (with photography by Leonard O’Brien and paintings by Sue Watson; Mono Unlimited, May 2011). (www.shardlight.com)

  Jennifer Harrison’s fifth poetry collection, Colombine: New & Selected Poems (Black Pepper, 2010), was shortlisted for the 2011 Western Australian Premier’s Poetry Prize. In 2009 she co-edited the Puncher & Wattmann anthology Motherlode: Australian Women’s Poetry 1986–2008.

  Paul Hetherington’s eight collections of poetry include It Feels Like Disbelief (Salt Publishing, 2007). His poetry awards include the 1996 ACT Book of the Year Award. He teaches at the University of Canberra and is a founding editor of the online journal Axon: Creative Explorations.

  Sarah Holland-Batt was born in Queensland in 1982. Her first book, Aria (UQP), won the Arts ACT Judith Wright Poetry Prize, the Thomas Shapcott Poetry Prize, and the FAW Anne Elder Award. She lives in New York.

  Jodie Hollander was raised in a family of classical musicians. Her poetry has been published in Page Seventeen, Poetry Ireland, Under the Radar, Poetry New Zealand and the Warwick Review, among others. She lives in Melbourne with her husband.

  Duncan Hose is a poet, painter and academic scholar. His latest book of poems is One Under Bacchus (Inken Publisch, 2011). In 2010 he won the Newcastle Poetry Prize. (www.duncanhose.com)

  D.J. Huppatz is a Melbourne-based writer who has published poetry in various journals both in Australia and the US. He also writes occasional literary criticism, and design and architectural criticism on his blog, Critical Cities.

  Mark William Jackson was born in England in 1970. He now lives in Sydney with his wife and daughters. His work has appeared in various print and online journals including Going Down Swinging. Mark blogs on Overland and his own website. (markwmjackson.com)

  John Jenkins is a Melbourne-based poet, writer and former journalist. His most recent book of poems is Growing Up With Mr Menzies (John Leonard Press, 2008) while his latest non-fiction book is Travellers’ Tales of Old Cuba (Ocean Press, new edition, 2011).

  A. Frances Johnson lectures in creative writing at the University of Melbourne. Her books include the novel Eugene’s Falls (Arcadia, 2007), and she has a poetry collection, The Wind-up Birdman of Moorabool Street, forthcoming from Puncher & Wattmann.

  Evan Jones was born in West Preston, Melbourne, in 1931. After studying journalism at the University of Melbourne, he spent the rest of his working life in academia until his early retirement in 1989.

  Jill Jones has published six collections of poetry, most recently Dark Bright Doors (Wakefield Press, 2010), which was shortlisted for the 2011 Kenneth Slessor Prize. She is a member of the J.M. Coetzee Centre for Creative Practice at the University of Adelaide.

  Paul Kane has published five collections of poems, most recently The Scholar’s Rock (Otherland Publishing, 2011). He is poetry editor for Antipodes. He lives with his wife in Warwick, New York, with a second home near Talbot, in rural Victoria.

  S.K. Kelen’s poetry has been widely published for over thirty years. His collection Earthly Delights (Pandanus Books, 2006) was joint winner of the ACT’s Judith Wright Award for a published book of poetry in 2007.

  Cate Kennedy’s three volumes of poetry are Signs of Other Fires (Five Islands Press, 2001), Joyflight (Interactive Publications, 2004) and The Taste of
River Water (Scribe, 2011). She has won the Vincent Buckley Poetry Prize and the 2011 Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for Poetry. She lives on a farm in north-east Victoria.

  Richard King is a freelance writer. He writes regularly for the Australian and the Sydney Morning Herald and has been published in many magazines and journals. He lives in Fremantle, Western Australia. (richardjking.blogspot.com)

  Graeme Kinross-Smith, an Honorary Fellow in Arts at Deakin University, is a poet, novelist, award-winning short fiction writer and photographer. His latest collection of poetry, Available Light, will appear shortly from Whitmore Press.

  Andy Kissane’s most recent collection, Out to Lunch (Puncher & Wattmann, 2009), was shortlisted for the NSW Premier’s Kenneth Slessor Prize. A book of short stories, The Swarm, will be published in 2012. (andykissane.com)

  Mike Ladd lives in Adelaide and produces Poetica on ABC Radio National. He has published six books of poetry and is currently working on a collection of short-form poems called Miniatures.

  Sam Langer was born in 1983. His poems have appeared in the Age, Otoliths and Overland. He is the founding editor of Steamer.

  Martin Langford has published six books of poetry, including The Human Project: New and Selected Poems (Puncher & Wattmann, 2009). He lives on the northern outskirts of Sydney.

  Anthony Lawrence’s latest poetry collection, Bark (UQP 2008), was shortlisted for the Age Poetry Book of the Year Award and the Queensland Premier’s Award. His book-length poem The Welfare of My Enemy U is forthcoming.

  Geoffrey Lehmann has released seven poetry collections and a Selected Poems and Collected Poems. He has edited two anthologies of Australian comic verse, and co-edited (with Robert Gray) two previous anthologies of Australian poetry.

  W.M. Lewis is a Brisbane-based poet and fiction writer, whose epic haiku and poems have appeared in Cordite Poetry Review.

  Kate Lilley’s Versary (Salt Publishing, 2002) won the Grace Leven Prize and was shortlisted for the NSW Premier’s Awards. Her second collection, Ladylike, is forthcoming from Salt Publishing.

  Debbie Lim lives in Sydney. She received the 2009 Arts ACT Rosemary Dobson Prize for an unpublished poem. A chapbook is forthcoming with Vagabond Press in 2012.

  Helen Lindstrom, a writer and teacher, grew up in Melbourne and now lives in Adelaide. Her first collection of poetry, Cold Comfort, was published by Brand New Lino Press in 2009 and republished by Ginninderra Press in 2011.

  Astrid Lorange is a PhD candidate, teacher, researcher, editor and poet from Sydney. Her poetry books include Eating and Speaking (Tea Party Republicans Press) and Minor Dogs (bas-books), both published in 2011.

  Roberta Lowing’s first book of poetry Ruin (Interactive Press, 2010) was joint winner of the 2011 Asher Literary Award. Her first novel Notorious (Allen & Unwin, 2010) was shortlisted for the 2011 Prime Minister’s Literary Award and the 2011 Commonwealth Writers’ Prize.

  Anthony Lynch is an editor with Deakin University and the publisher for the independent poetry press, Whitmore Press. His first collection of poetry, Night Train, is about to appear from Melbourne publisher Clouds of Magellan.

  David McCooey’s first book of poems, Blister Pack (Salt Publishing, 2005), won the Mary Gilmore Award. His second collection, Outside, is forthcoming from Salt Publishing. He teaches literary studies and professional & creative writing at Deakin University, Victoria.

  David McGuigan is a poet, town planner and teacher, recently returned to Adelaide from teaching students on remote Aboriginal communities. He has had many poems and short stories published in journals around Australia.

  Rhyll McMaster’s poetry has won awards including the C.J. Dennis and Grace Leven prizes. Her collection Late Night Shopping will be published in 2012 by Brandl & Schlesinger.

  Jennifer Maiden was born in Penrith in 1949. Her many awards include the Christopher Brennan Award for Lifetime Achievement. Her latest collection, Pirate Rain (Giramondo, 2010), won the 2011 NSW Premier’s Prize.

  John Miles has published two books of poems and a new collection is nearing completion. His awards include winning the Shrewsbury International Poetry Competition.

  Peter Minter is a leading Australian poet, editor and scholar. He is poetry editor of Overland magazine.

  Les Murray’s work has been published in ten languages. He has won many 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 publisher at the independent press Puncher & Wattmann, which he founded in 2005. His four books of poetry include Phantom Limb (John Leonard Press, 2010), which won the Grace Leven Prize for Poetry in 2011.

  Nguyen Tien Hoang arrived in Australia from Vietnam in 1974. His poems and essays have appeared widely, including in a published collection, Beyond Sleep (1990). He is on the editorial panel of literary e-magazine damau.org.

  Jal Nicholl lives in Melbourne, where he writes and paints as much as time and work commitments allow.

  Mark O’Flynn has published two novels as well as three collections of poetry, most recently What Can Be Proven (Interactive Publications, 2007). A third novel is forthcoming from HarperCollins. He lives in the Blue Mountains.

  Ella O’Keefe is a PhD candidate at Deakin University in the School of Communication and Creative Arts. Her work includes radio pieces aired on Radio National. She currently lives in Melbourne.

  Paul O’Loughlin is a Sydneysider who, with a number of poems in anthologies, in 2010 published his first collection of poetry.

  Ouyang Yu, originally from China, has by the age of fifty-six published fifty-nine books. His latest English poetry collection is The Kingsbury Tales (Brandl & Schlesinger, 2008).

  Louise Oxley has published two collections, Compound Eye (2003) and Buoyancy (2008), with Five Islands Press, and a selection of her work, Sitting with Cézanne, is Picaro Press’s Wagtail 41.

  Geoff Page is a Canberra-based poet. His latest books are Agnostic Skies (Five Island Press, 2006) and 60 Classic Australian Poems (UNSW Press, 2009). He has also released a CD, Coffee with Miles (River Road Press, 2009).

  Eddie Paterson’s poems have been widely published. He is a lecturer in creative writing at the University of Melbourne.

  Janette Pieloor’s poetry has been published in magazines and journals. She was runner-up in 2009 for the ACT Michael Thwaites Poetry Award. She lives in Canberra and is currently working on her first collection of poetry.

  Felicity Plunkett’s first collection of poetry, Vanishing Point (UQP, 2009), won the Thomas Shapcott Prize and was shortlisted for the Western Australian Premier’s Book Awards. Her latest chapbook is Seastrands (Vagabond Press, 2011). Since 2010 she has been poetry editor at UQP.

  Claire Potter was born in Perth. In 2006 she was awarded an Australian Young Poets Fellowship. Her first full-length collection is Swallow (Five Islands Press, 2010).

  David Prater was born in Dubbo in 1972. Papertiger Media published his first poetry collection, We Will Disappear, in 2007. Since 2001 he has been the managing editor of Cordite Poetry Review. He currently lives in Karlskrona, Sweden.

  Aden Rolfe is a Melbourne-based writer whose work includes performance writing, collage and criticism. His poetry has appeared in Overland, The Best Australian Poetry 2009 and the Melbourne Historical Journal.

  Peter Rose is the author of a family memoir, Rose Boys (Allen & Unwin, 2001), which won the National Biography Award in 2003. His latest novel is Roddy Parr (Fourth Estate, 2010). His new poetry collection, Crimson Crop, will appear in early 2012. He is the editor of Australian Book Review.

  Penni Russon lives in St Andrews with her husband and young children. Her most recent novel is Only Ever Always (Allen & Unwin, 2011). She maintains a blog called Eglantine’s Cake.

  Gig Ryan has been poetry editor at the Age since 1998. She
has published eight collections of poetry, the most recent being New and Selected Poems (Giramondo, 2011).

  Philip Salom’s books include the satirical verse-novel Keepers (Puncher & Wattmann, 2010), the first of a trilogy. In 2003 he received the Christopher Brennan Award.

  Andrew Sant jointly founded and edited for ten years the Tasmanian-based quarterly, Island. The most recent of his poetry collections is Fuel (Black Pepper, Melbourne, 2009). Born in London, he now lives in Melbourne.

  Michael Sariban is a Brisbane-based poet whose work has appeared in a wide variety of Australian and overseas publications. His collections include A Formula for Glass (UQP, 1987) and Luxuries (Ginninderra Press, 2001).

  Jaya Savige’s debut poetry collection, Latecomers, won the NSW Premier’s Kenneth Slessor Prize, the Arts Queensland Thomas Shapcott Prize and the Arts Queensland Val Vallis Award. His second volume is Surface to Air (UQP, 2011).

 

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