Reviews/Essays

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 […]

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: […]

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 […]

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 […]

terra bravura by Meredith Wattison Puncher & Wattman ISBN 978-1-92145-063-1 Reviewed by WILLO DRUMMOND The blurb to Meredith Wattison’s terra bravura states that the collection differs from her previous work in that it is “fully autobiographical”.  This position is announced boldly from the very first line, and resonates throughout the volume, with a complex weave of visual […]

Hollywood Starlet by Ivy Alvarez dancing girl press Reviewed by ROSE HUNTER Each poem in Ivy Alvarez’ chapbook Hollywood Starlet features a female star from years past, for example such screen icons as Rita Hayworth, Jean Harlow, Jayne Mansfield, and Greta Garbo. Recognising these famous names is one of the obvious pleasures of the book, […]

Nothing Sacred by Linda Weste Australian Scholarly Publishing ISBN  978-1-925333-22-0 Reviewed by ASHLEY HAYWOOD Nothing Sacred, a novel in free verse, spans an historical denouement: the decades precipitating the climatic assassination of Julius Caesar in 44 BCE, and the eventual fall of the late Roman Republic. After Caesar’s death, a second triumvirate was formed which would be […]

Hook and Eye By Judith Beveridge Braziller, Ed Paul Kane ISBN 978-0-8076-0000-9 Reviewed by MICHELE SEMINARA Judith Beveridge’s Hook and Eye is a collection of previously published poems selected to showcase the highly regarded Australian poet’s work to an American readership. The poems are for the most part imaginatively — rather than autobiographically — conceived, […]