Reviews/Essays

Finding Eliza by Larissa Behrendt St. Lucia: University of Queensland Press ISBN 978-0-702253-90-4 Reviewed by NADIA RHOOK “She took a long great breath, lifted her petticoats, and ran headlong into the greatest adventure ever told!”[i] – The Rollicking Adventures of Eliza Fraser, film poster, 1975 Larissa Behrendt’s latest work is a profound lesson for the gullible. Finding Eliza […]

The Queen’s Play by Aashish Kaul Roundfire Books ISBN 978-1-78279-861-3 Reviewed by SUBHASH JAIRETH Queen Mandodari’s Clever Play Once upon a time in a kingdom on a little island lived a queen by the name of Mandodari (the ‘soft-bellied’).  The king was busy fighting wars and so bored, or perhaps to challenge her husband’s authority, […]

The Intervention: An Anthology by Rosie Scott and Anita Heiss (eds) Concerned Australians/New South Books ISBN 978-0-646937-09-0 Reviewed by KATE HALL In The Intervention: An Anthology (2015), editors Rosie Scott and Anita Heiss add their voices to a diverse and impressive range of writers and speakers, from renowned Northern Territory Elders like Rosalie Kunoth-Monks of Utopia […]

Letter to Pessoa by Michelle Cahill ISBN 978-1-925336-14-6 Giramondo Reviewed by PAUL GIFFARD-FORET       Letter to Pessoa fuses prose, poetry, and literary criticism, and is a hymn to the Republic of Letters. Michelle Cahill’s stories are set in multiple locations: Kenya where she was born; London and Australia where she grew up and […]

Black Rock, White City by A.S. Patric Transit Lounge ISBN 9781921924835 Reviewed by NICOLE THOMAS The term ‘ethnic cleansing’ fuelled fierce debate during the 1990’s when it was applied to atrocities being committed in Bosnia and Herzegovina.  The euphemism for genocide was coined by perpetrators and adopted by journalists and politicians, penetrating official language.  The […]

Forged from Silver Dollar by Li Feng Hachette Australia ISBN 978-0-733632-31-0 Reviewed by JESSICA YU Li Feng’s memoir, Forged from Silver Dollar, traces the author’s matriarchal lineage, beginning with the story of her great grandmother-in law Silver Dollar, her grandmother Ming Xiu, and her mother Rong.  Joining the tradition of memoirs and fictionalised accounts of Chinese […]

Strange Objects Covered With Fur by University of Technology (Sydney) Students Xoum ISBN 9781921134555 Reviewed by KYRA THOMSEN If the Greek poet Meleager considers an anthology as a garland of flowers, Strange Objects Covered With Fur is an outrageous arrangement of pastel-petal roses alongside long-pronged fern fronds and outrageous birds-of-paradise; its contrasts in theme and structure […]

Paths of Flight by Luke Fischer Black Pepper Press ISBN 9781876044855 Reviewed by ROBBIE COBURN       The philosophical subject of Luke Fischer’s poetics aligned with his astounding use of language and form create a poetry born of beauty and existential exploration. In Paths of Flight, his debut collection, the natural world and the internalized […]

Lost in Mid-Verse by Angela Costi Owl Publishing ISBN 0977543323 Reviewed by ALI JANE SMITH Poet and graphic artist Peter Lyssiotis writes in his introduction to Lost in Mid-Verse, “Costi’s verse has been written when the movement of people from one country to another is probably the defining characteristic of the time.” Emigration is the […]

Everyday Epic by Anna Kerdijk-Nicholson Puncher & Wattmann ISBN 978-1-922186-77-5 Reviewed by MELINDA SMITH The cover design of Anna Kerdijk-Nicholson’s dense and rewarding new book plays knowingly with the title, splitting the word Everyday across two lines and hyphenating it. Everyday Epic. Every day, epic. Fortunately the book lives up to both kinds of promise. Starting with […]

Year of the Wasp by Joel Deane Hunter Publishing ISBN: 9780994352859 Reviewed by GEOFF PAGE   A stroke is among the most disconcerting and disabling afflictions we humans are likely to encounter. Joel Deane, poet, speechwriter, novelist, had one in 2012 and Year of the Wasp is his three-part, book-length poem recounting that event and his […]

Devadatta’s Poems by Judith Beveridge Giramondo Publishing ISBN 978-1-922146-52-6 Reviewed by STU HATTON According to the collection of Buddhist scriptures known as the Pāli Canon,  Devadatta was a first cousin of the Buddha. Devadatta created a schism within the Sangha (the Buddha’s order), and tried to murder the Buddha on several occasions. In her introduction to […]

Eidolon by Sandeep Parmar Shearsman Books ISBN 978-1-848613-92-8 Reviewed by NABINA DAS The reading of Eidolon for me started with the cover art of Sandeep Parmar’s book. The Gustave Moreau painting evokes a sense of mystery and intrigue, as also of solitariness in a ravaged world—emotions that continue to run through the slim volume. The 50 title-less […]

Selected Poems from Les Fleurs du Mal by Charles Baudelaire (trans. Jan Owen) Arc Publications ISBN 978-1-908376-40-4 Reviewed by JUDITH BISHOP ‘– Hypocrite lecteur, – mon semblable, – mon frère!’ With these halting, celebrated lines,  Baudelaire most hauntingly begs the reader to look inside herself, and to recognize there what he has seen in himself: […]

Dirty Words by Natalie Harkin Cordite Books ISBN 978-0-994259-63-9 Reviewed by PIP NEWLING ‘Consider this                   words like lives have histories actions     like   knives cut-deep’ (p.23) Natalie Harkin’s first collection of poetry, Dirty Words, illustrates the effects of words down the generations of white Australia’s history. […]

Bejing Spring by Pan Zijie maninriver press, 2015 ISBN 10: 0987473352 Reviewed by OUYANG YU Shortly after I received a copy of Beijing Spring, in Melbourne, for reviewing, I got on my way to Canberra for a visit and read the book in one go on my flight there. Immediately, a number of things, quite suggestive absences, […]

Painting Red Orchids by Eileen Chong Pitt St Poetry ISBN 978-1-922080-66-0 Reviewed by GEOFF PAGE   Painting Red Orchids is Eileen Chong’s third collection in six years. Born in Singapore, she has lived in Sydney since 2007. Although her Chinese roots run deep she is also very much a citizen of her adopted city and […]

brush by joanne burns Giramondo Publishing ISBN 978-1-922146-71-7 Reviewed by NAME ‘It must give pleasure’[1] It should be no surprise that I am a big fan of joanne burns’ poetry. Although brush is not a New and Selected per se, it is a excellent introduction to her work and a substantial confirmation of the poet’s talent and […]

The Special by David Stavanger University of Queensland Press ISBN 978-0-7022-5319-5 Reviewed by MICHELE SEMINARA This book is dedicated to the dead who are bravely living (and to those who wake wild-eyed in the dark) So begins David Stavanger’s first full length collection, The Special, published by UQP as wining manuscript of the 2013 Thomas Shapcott Poetry Prize. As […]

Engraft by Michele Seminara Island Publishing Reviewed by ANNA COUANI   Not so long ago, publishing a first book of poetry was akin to dropping a pebble into a bottomless well. Today, although the poetry scene is a confined one, Engraft by Michele Seminara finds itself in a much more vibrant situation. After only a […]