'Barry Hill's tenth book of poetry selects from his Naked Clay: Drawing from Lucian Freud, which was shortlisted for the Forward Prize, 2013, and described by John Kinsella as a 'masterpiece'; Grass Hut Work (2016), his excursion into Hiroshima and Japanese poetry, which Sam Hamill said was 'beautiful and quietly powerful'; Lines for Birds (2011) his collaboration with the painter John Wolseley, was acclaimed by Nathaniel Tarn as 'a miraculous gift of a book'; The Inland Sea (2001), which David Malouf described as 'a mixture of intense contemplation and powerful eroticism'; Ghosting William Buckley (1993), deemed by Barrett Reid a 'major work' of 'stories, thought and music' from the encounter of a 'wild white man' and the indigenous people of the Australian frontier. This Selected also includes recent poetry--lyrical, political and in memoriam.' (Publication summary)
'Across a long career that includes 10 books of poems, short story and nonfiction collections, essays and librettos, Barry Hill has maintained a quiet, persistently influential place in Australian literature. His books have won numerous awards in this country and his eighth book, Naked Clay: Drawing From Lucian Freud, was shortlisted for the Forward Prize in Britain.' (Introduction)
'There is probably no book in a poet’s career more important than his or her first Selected Poems. It is here that poets have the opportunity to display the best of their work in all its variety over several decades. Individual collections are a mere step on the way. Collecteds tend to be posthumous and of interest mainly to scholars, reference libraries, and a cluster of devotees.' (Introduction)
'There is probably no book in a poet’s career more important than his or her first Selected Poems. It is here that poets have the opportunity to display the best of their work in all its variety over several decades. Individual collections are a mere step on the way. Collecteds tend to be posthumous and of interest mainly to scholars, reference libraries, and a cluster of devotees.' (Introduction)
'Across a long career that includes 10 books of poems, short story and nonfiction collections, essays and librettos, Barry Hill has maintained a quiet, persistently influential place in Australian literature. His books have won numerous awards in this country and his eighth book, Naked Clay: Drawing From Lucian Freud, was shortlisted for the Forward Prize in Britain.' (Introduction)
