image of person or book cover 3700636829108666828.jpg
Image courtesy of publisher's website.
y separately published work icon Music Our Bodies Can’t Hold selected work   poetry  
Issue Details: First known date: 2017... 2017 Music Our Bodies Can’t Hold
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

 'This book continues Brendan Ryan's exploration of place and belonging that resonate in country towns. From the lives of farmers, abattoir workers, and dog walkers to the history of Aboriginal dispossession; from a tour of the communities of the Mt Noorat Football League in Victoria's isolated Western District to moments of wonder on back country roads celebrated with gentle irony. Here is a view of the country that is both contemporary and wry. Lyrical and rich in narrative power, this is a collection that dismantles the idealised rural pastoral with an empathetic and incisive voice.' (Publication summary)

Notes

  • Dedication: Dedicated to everyone with Marfan Syndrome and those who love us, but particularly to my father Norman Jackson (1926-1973)

Affiliation Notes

  • Writing Disability in Australia:

    This work has been affiliated because of its focus on people with Marfan syndrome, as explored by an author with the same condition.

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

    • St Lucia, Indooroopilly - St Lucia area, Brisbane - North West, Brisbane, Queensland,: Hunter Publishers , 2017 .
      image of person or book cover 3700636829108666828.jpg
      Image courtesy of publisher's website.
      Extent: 86p.
      Note/s:
      • Published September 2017

      ISBN: 9780994352880
      Series: y separately published work icon Hunter Contemporary Australian Poets St Lucia Melbourne : Hunter Publishers , 2009- 9569293 2009 series - publisher poetry

Works about this Work

Diagnosing Tomorrow Andy Jackson , 2022 single work essay
— Appears in: Meanjin , December vol. 81 no. 4 2022; (p. 159-164)

'The pandemic isn't over. No matter how often we speak of it using the past tense, or how strong our quixotic nostalgia for 'how it used to be'. Despite how oddly clueless we are at assessing actual risk or how much we wish ourselves not to be one of the vulnerable, it persists as a background hum, or a piercing, unshakeable tinnitus. Plans have to change at short notice. Friends are bedridden for days, exhausted for weeks or months. The numbers of cases and deaths, now merely footnotes rather than headlines, continue whether we look at them or not.' (Publication abstract)

y separately published work icon At Home with Andy Jackson Astrid Edwards (interviewer), 2021 23443591 2021 single work interview podcast

'Andy Jackson is a poet of compassion and intellect. His 2021 collection, Human Looking, explores the voices of the disabled and ill with tenderness and love.

'Andy's first collection, Among the Regulars, was shortlisted for the 2011 Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry, and his 2020 collection Music Our Bodies Can’t Hold'was shortlisted for the John Bray Poetry Award.

'Andy has featured at literary events and arts festivals in Ireland, India, the USA and across Australia, and has co-edited disability-themed issues of the literary journals Southerly and Australian Poetry Journal. He works as a creative writing teacher and tutor for community organisations and universities.'(Production summary)

In Our Own Voices: 5 Australian Books about Living with Disability Jessica White , 2020 single work column
— Appears in: The Conversation , 3 December 2020;
Review Short : Andy Jackson’s Music Our Bodies Can’t Hold Ruth McIver , 2018 single work review
— Appears in: Cordite Poetry Review , August no. 87 2018;

— Review of Music Our Bodies Can’t Hold Andy Jackson , 2017 selected work poetry

'Music Our Bodies Can’t Hold’s premise is unique: 54 poems for the 46 chromosomes in the human body. Each poem is distinctive in typography and voice, gleaned from a primary source interview of a public or private figure believed to have Marfan syndrome. Often very tall, slender and gifted, those with Marfan syndrome are aesthetically, artistically, intellectually, athletically extraordinary. As the collection’s poet, Andy Jackson puts it: ‘Marfan troubles the boundaries between “disability” and “extraordinary ability”’; much anguish is caused by this illness, and there is a sense of being ‘dumb with pain / suffused with light’, ‘when the genetic stars align’’.'  (Introduction)

Review: INCARNATION IS NO BURDEN – Music Our Bodies Can’t Hold, Andy Jackson - Carmen Leigh Keates , 2018 single work review
— Appears in: Foam:e , March no. 15 2018;

— Review of Music Our Bodies Can’t Hold Andy Jackson , 2017 selected work poetry
Review: INCARNATION IS NO BURDEN – Music Our Bodies Can’t Hold, Andy Jackson - Carmen Leigh Keates , 2018 single work review
— Appears in: Foam:e , March no. 15 2018;

— Review of Music Our Bodies Can’t Hold Andy Jackson , 2017 selected work poetry
Review Short : Andy Jackson’s Music Our Bodies Can’t Hold Ruth McIver , 2018 single work review
— Appears in: Cordite Poetry Review , August no. 87 2018;

— Review of Music Our Bodies Can’t Hold Andy Jackson , 2017 selected work poetry

'Music Our Bodies Can’t Hold’s premise is unique: 54 poems for the 46 chromosomes in the human body. Each poem is distinctive in typography and voice, gleaned from a primary source interview of a public or private figure believed to have Marfan syndrome. Often very tall, slender and gifted, those with Marfan syndrome are aesthetically, artistically, intellectually, athletically extraordinary. As the collection’s poet, Andy Jackson puts it: ‘Marfan troubles the boundaries between “disability” and “extraordinary ability”’; much anguish is caused by this illness, and there is a sense of being ‘dumb with pain / suffused with light’, ‘when the genetic stars align’’.'  (Introduction)

Beauty, Imagination, Understanding, Empathy, Recognition Heather Taylor Johnson , 2017 single work essay
— Appears in: Rochford Street Review , July-September no. 23 2017;

'“Andy Jackson is such an important poet writing about a topic so deeply important to me: the othered body. I think this is his best book to date and I was so privileged to have launched it. Read the speech, then read the book!” -Heather Taylor Johnson'

In Our Own Voices: 5 Australian Books about Living with Disability Jessica White , 2020 single work column
— Appears in: The Conversation , 3 December 2020;
y separately published work icon At Home with Andy Jackson Astrid Edwards (interviewer), 2021 23443591 2021 single work interview podcast

'Andy Jackson is a poet of compassion and intellect. His 2021 collection, Human Looking, explores the voices of the disabled and ill with tenderness and love.

'Andy's first collection, Among the Regulars, was shortlisted for the 2011 Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry, and his 2020 collection Music Our Bodies Can’t Hold'was shortlisted for the John Bray Poetry Award.

'Andy has featured at literary events and arts festivals in Ireland, India, the USA and across Australia, and has co-edited disability-themed issues of the literary journals Southerly and Australian Poetry Journal. He works as a creative writing teacher and tutor for community organisations and universities.'(Production summary)

Diagnosing Tomorrow Andy Jackson , 2022 single work essay
— Appears in: Meanjin , December vol. 81 no. 4 2022; (p. 159-164)

'The pandemic isn't over. No matter how often we speak of it using the past tense, or how strong our quixotic nostalgia for 'how it used to be'. Despite how oddly clueless we are at assessing actual risk or how much we wish ourselves not to be one of the vulnerable, it persists as a background hum, or a piercing, unshakeable tinnitus. Plans have to change at short notice. Friends are bedridden for days, exhausted for weeks or months. The numbers of cases and deaths, now merely footnotes rather than headlines, continue whether we look at them or not.' (Publication abstract)

Last amended 19 Dec 2019 15:26:10
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