I don’t have much to say about this. A treasured friend, for god knows what reason, gave me her copy of this and it sure as hell meant as much to her reading it as it did to me. I read a few poems from it on LJ good poetry communities (you laugh, but LiveJournal, [...]
Tagged Beer Wars documentary, contemporary American poetry, crush, good friends, LiveJournal poetry communities, medication side effects, poetry, Richard SikenI once knew an histrionic poet (a proper poet too, just not a very nice person) who used to nag me about reading Anne Carson. She very literally thrust three of her books at me to read and then told her mother and housemate these horrendous lies about me and then got her mother to [...]
Tagged ancient Greek, Anne Carson, Nox, poetryFor some weird reason, when I lived in the Philippines at the age of four, my auntie, then a teenager bought me Oliver Twist. It had taken me three months to become fluent in Tagalog (and steal the cheesy romance comics she was addicted to for my own reading pleasure) and she bought me bloody [...]
Tagged A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens, Christmastime, DailyLitPress Press currying favour, mark 2. Choosing this chapbook was an absolute no-brainer. An amazing poet powerhouse educator, Judith Rodriguez, takes a poetry workshop every semester at the CAE. If you have any interest in writing poetry, you really should go to her class. Meeting her and having the benefit of her knowledge and guidance [...]
Tagged Anne Elvey, chapbooks, Claimed by country, Council of Adult Education, Judith Rodriguez, Melbourne poets, monthly Yak Bar poetry sessions, poetry, Press PressAt the beginning of the last job I had late last year, I approached a small press called Press Press to see if they were interested in publishing some of my short, short poems as a chapbook. I sent three off, all of which had been shown as part of the Overload Poetry Festival at [...]
Tagged chapbooks, Melbourne poets, Ouyang Yu, poetry, Press Press, White and YuHere’s another gem that’s been on my bookcase for a few years that I decided to read. I like to read plays and poetry when commuting as normally the books aren’t thick and therefore they’re very transportable. My partner said the title sounded familiar, did the playwright pinch it off Oasis’ song? Nooooo, quite the [...]
Tagged John Osborne, Look Back In Anger, play, reading, reviewIt’s absolutely criminal that I picked this up for ten bucks at a big bookstore in the city. Criminal, I tell you! Don’t you people know who she is?! Dorothy Porter is definitely one of Australia’s most well-known poets, female or not. Sadly, she passed away a couple of years ago. She is particularly famous [...]
Tagged book review, Dorothy Porter, El Dorado, poetry, reading, verse novelA good friend of mine, Chris lent this to me while I was up in Sydney at the beginning of the year and ordered me to take it, read it and send it back to him. Good friends with good books are indeed a fantastic thing. I’ve read a couple of translations of Sappho’s work [...]
Tagged ancient Greek, Mary Barnard, poetry, Sappho, translationJennifer Michael Hecht’s poetry volume came from Tupelo Press in the same shipment as Sarah Hannah’s brilliant Inflorescence, which was one of my reading highlights this year so I had high hopes for it. The gold badges brandishing the cover also meant my expectations were high. I do like that Hecht’s lines are quite long, [...]
Tagged book review, contemporary American poetry, Jennifer Michael Hecht, reading, The Next Ancient World, Tupelo PressSorry the above image is so big! Adam Ford is an Australian poet and zinester. Whilst on one of my many trips to the lovely Sticky Institute in Degraves St Subway, I picked up this gorgeous little chapbook and was shocked (in a good way) to discover that it was published by Picaro Press, a [...]
Tagged Adam Ford, chapbooks, Picaro Press, poetry, Sticky Institute, The Third Fruit Is A Bird, zinesIf by now you haven’t cottoned onto the fact that I’m smashing poetry volumes in order to reach my 75 books goal by the end of the year, you’re a bit dim. This one I picked up directly through the publisher Tupelo Press which does this cool thing where they choose one or two titles [...]
Tagged book review, Inflorescence, poetry, reading, Sarah HannahMy former mentor, god bless his seedy soul, had given me a copy of this poetry volume by Susan Hampton a fair few years ago. Because I hadn’t heard of her, I did neglect to read it till now. Silly me! Probably one of the best collections of Australian poetry I’ve read this year – [...]
Tagged Australian poetry, book review, Greek mythology in contemporary literature, Susan Hampton, The Kindly OnesI just about wet myself in glee when I spied this book, casually browsing in a bookshop. I remember I did a fair bit of damage to my finances on that particular outing. It’s taken me about a year to finish it – it’s the perfect book for dipping in and out of on lazy [...]
Tagged book review, interviews, The Paris Review Interviews Volume 2, writersIt hit me that it was probably about time I read some of Billy Collins’ poetry given he was a former American Poet Laureate. Despite promising my friend Luke that I wouldn’t start another book till I’d finished reading the one he lent me (No Logo by Naomi Klein), I did because I didn’t want [...]
Tagged Billy Collins, book review, poetry, Questions About Angels, readingI’ve read all of last year’s issues of Going Down Swinging one of this year’s and haven’t been disappointed yet. There’s always such a fun mix of short fiction, graphics and stacks of yummy, juicy poetry that actually makes me feel something instead of boring me to death with its forced cleverness (hey, that’s probably [...]
Tagged book review, Craig Billingham, Cristin O'Keefe Aptowicz, Going Down Swinging, Melbourne poets, periodical, reading