'I first became interested in David McCooey’s work while studying an Honours unit at the University of Western Australia, where for an assessment I responded to his essay on Chris Wallace-Crabbe’s poetry, only to learn that he too had taken the same unit some years before. David and I caught up on the UWA grounds, assailed by the mockery of kookaburras and occasional bursts of sunlight (literally star struck), to chat about the process of drafting his latest collection.' (Introduction)