'In Dominique Hecq’s latest collection, Tracks, the geology of distance and time persists. It is a compilation which draws the reader on a threaded discovery of the inner workings of the poet’s mind, sampling along the way the bountiful topography of valleys and ranges which soar and bottom out and rise again with the simplicity of her words. It is, as Hecq notes, ‘autofictional fragments of a journey without maps’ spanning 30 years of the author’s life in her adopted country Australia, after a childhood in Belgium.' (Introduction)
'From March to November 2020, the Melbourne populace was restricted, curfewed and in ‘lockdown’ due to COVID19, bringing with it a slow-down, a chance to engage deeply with what nourishes. This was a time when I hunkered down with a breadth of poetry collections engaging with themes of isolation, exile and crises. I gravitated to collections of poems that built on an issue, immersing themselves in one world and all of its nuances. This is the mastery of award-winning poet and scholar, Dr Jordie Albiston. She applies outstanding rigour to research and content, as much as she does to form and metre. During the many months of solitary neighbourhood walks, mandatory masks and global crises spreading through airwaves, Albiston’s poems created reflective spaces on how history is only separated by time, and ‘love’ must be activated on a fundamental level.' (Introduction)
'Wide River by Jane Frank, Calanthe Press 2020, was launched by Nathan Shepherdson on 16th August 2020, at the Under the Greenwood Tree Bookshop and Art Gallery, Tamborine Mountain, Queensland.'
'Living After Death by Ouyang Yu, Melbourne Poets Union 2020 was launched virtually by Kevin Brophy on 10 November 2020'
'Foxline by Chris Mansell, Flying Island Books 2020, was launched by Jean Kent at The Shop Gallery, Glebe on 21st February 2021.'
'In every poetry collection, there is one aspect, one overwhelming impression, that we are left with which later comes to define it for us. In Frank’s Wide River, it is the poet’s quiet insistence on reawakening us to the essential wonder of our world that stays with us. In the course of twenty-seven poems, the possibility of any expected or staid response is deliberately peeled away; if familiarity breeds blindness, Frank’s overwhelming achievement is surely to restore us to a gloriously sensitised vision of things:...' (Introduction)
'Rico Craig teaches us through his writings. The opening poem ‘Angelo’ of the 2017 Anne Elder Award winner Bone Ink exposes the underbelly of Craig’s stomping ground in Western Sydney.' (Introduction)
'David Stavanger is a well- known award-winning writer, performer and psychologist, and his latest collection, Case Notes, has been shortlisted for the 2021 Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for poetry. The book takes you into a fascinating, quasi psychedelic trip into a mind, a mind sometimes accosted by mental illness and at other times reflecting a god energy in his words. Case Notes has five sections, each section introduced by the Psychology Symbol Ψ, repeating the symbol to number each one.' (Introduction)
