New Australian Poetry

There is some exciting Australian poetry being published at the moment.

Vagabond Press is one of the most exciting publishers in the Asia Pacific. It is scooping awards with its strong stable of poets and innovative book design. Vagabond is publishing four collections in July. Enfolded in the wings of a great darkness by Peter Boyle is a book-length poem. Boyle won the 2017 Kenneth Slessor Award for his brilliant Ghostspeaking. Other collections are Birth Plan by LK Holt, a finely wrought work; Carte Blanche by Thom Sullivan and Archival-Poetics by Narungga woman, Natalie Harkin, produced as three chapbooks in a slipcase.

Buy Books https://vagabondpress.net/collections/frontpage

In May, Magabala Press is publishing Kindred, Gunai woman Kirli Saunders’s debut poetry collection. Her first picture book was The Incredible Freedom Machines. Kirli founded the Poetry in First Languages project at Red Room Poetry.

UQP is releasing The Lost Arabs by bisexual Arab-Australian poet, Omar Sakr. It explores themes of masculinity, conflict, identity and sexuality.

Iconic Giramondo Press is publishing Sergius Seeks Bacchus by Norman Erikson Pasaribu, translated from Indonesian by Tiffany Tsao. It considers the minority status of being a gay writer of Bataknese and Christian background. Award-winning satirist joanne burns’s apparently stands out for its “verve and humour and word-play”. The multi-talented Lisa Gorton offers Empirical, a thoughtful study of memory and landscape.

Pitt Street Poetry has Beetle Prayer by slam poet Philip Wilcox and In Medias Res by poet-editor Geoff Page.

In June, UWAP will publish verse novel Malcolm byLeni Shilton and Lyre by Stuart Cooke, inspired in part by Les Murray.

Fremantle Press have Fish Song by Caitlin Maling, described by Judith Beveridge as “masterful” and The Future Keepers by Nandi Chinna, who is part of Red Room’s New Shoots project.

In case you missed them, Cordite recently published Yuiquimbiang by Louise Crisp and Giramondo published Gerald Murnane’s superb Green Shadows and other poems, reviewed already on the blog.

Buy books directly from the publishers or at https://www.booksellers.org.au/find-a-bookshop