Cirrus@Austlit

'In our September edition, there's a brace of fine writing in the time of Covid-19.

'From Jack Latimore, 'Through a Mask, Breathing': an expansive, lyrical essay that couples a local response to the Black Lives Matter movement to ideas around gentrification, St Kilda, Sidney Nolan and the life and music of Archie Roach, all of it set against the quiet menace of the pandemic.

'In other pieces drawn from our Covid moment, Kate Grenville charts the troubled progress and unexpected insights of days under lockdown, Fiona Wright finds space and rare pleasures as the world closes in, Krissy Kneen takes on the sudden obsession with 'iso-weight', Justin Clemens searches for hope in the world of verse, Desmond Manderson and Lorenzo Veracini consider viruses, colonialism and other metaphors, and there's short fiction from Anson Cameron, 'The Miserable Creep of Covid'. ' (Publication introduction)

'Best of Australian Poems is a new annual anthology collecting previously published and unpublished poems to create a poetic snapshot of the year that was. Capturing the richness and diversity of Australian poetry, across a timeframe of 1 July 2020 - 30 June 2021, the series will explore how poetic responses to the contemporary moment develop with each passing year.

'The book opens with an introduction by its 2021 editors, award-winning poets Ellen van Neerven and Toby Fitch. They discuss their approach to curating the 'aural events' of this inaugural anthology, which features 100 poems across a considered, also provocative at times, range of poetic voices, approaches and themes.

'The Best of Australian Poems (BoAP) series is published by Australia's national poetry organisation, Australian Poetry, and will feature two different guest editors each year.' (Publication summary)