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y separately published work icon At the Altar of Touch selected work   poetry  
Issue Details: First known date: 2022... 2022 At the Altar of Touch
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'From the 2020 winner of the Thomas Shapcott Award comes a sophisticated, impressive and rich collection of poetry that unpacks the complexity of family, grief, and cross-cultural and queer identity.

'These richly allusive poems weigh violence and tenderness, wound and cure, history and future. Boldly and tenderly, they balance loss and gain, adventure and quiet, as they hum to one another of love and loss. This is a scintillating and exhilarating collection from an accomplished and distinctive new voice.' (Publication summary)

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

Works about this Work

Subtle Imaginations : Resistant Realities Three Recent Collections Martin Langford , 2023 single work review
— Appears in: Meanjin , December vol. 82 no. 4 2023; (p. 172-179)

— Review of Monster Field Lucy Dougan , 2022 selected work poetry ; Mourning Is Women's Business Lee Cataldi , 2022 selected work poetry ; At the Altar of Touch Gavin Yuan Gao , 2022 selected work poetry
'As happens most years, there was a good haul of collections with energy, sustained craft and distinctive perspectives. Nothing explosive - no first performances of 'The Rite of Spring' - but poetry doesn't operate like that. It emerges, rather, through the bubbling accretion of the work of poets maturing at different times, pursuing different possibilities and inventing different styles to articulate them with. There were a small number of high-profile selections this year, such as Sarah Holland-Batt's excellent 'The Jaguar', a handful of Selecteds surveying the poetry of some who have been at the coalface for many decades - Alan Wearne, Jill Jones, Andrew Taylor - together with the regular offering of ambitious and thoughtful collections such as the books reviewed here, which inevitably only represent a selection of those that deserve attention.' 

(Publication abstract)

Jennifer Compton Reviews Sarah Holland-Batt and Gavin Yuan Gao Jennifer Compton , 2023 single work review
— Appears in: Cordite Poetry Review , no. 109 2023;

— Review of The Jaguar Sarah Holland-Batt , 2022 selected work poetry ; At the Altar of Touch Gavin Yuan Gao , 2022 selected work poetry

'Both of these considerable books, The Jaguar by Sarah Holland-Batt and At the Altar of Touch by Gavin Yuan Gao, arrived into my hands, out of their padded envelope, with all of the gravitas of prize-winners. They are, both of them, winning books – they shine with sincerity and reach and craft – and they won me over with minimal resistance on my part.' (Introduction)

Jennifer Compton Reviews Sarah Holland-Batt and Gavin Yuan Gao Jennifer Compton , 2023 single work review
— Appears in: Cordite Poetry Review , no. 109 2023;

— Review of The Jaguar Sarah Holland-Batt , 2022 selected work poetry ; At the Altar of Touch Gavin Yuan Gao , 2022 selected work poetry

'Both of these considerable books, The Jaguar by Sarah Holland-Batt and At the Altar of Touch by Gavin Yuan Gao, arrived into my hands, out of their padded envelope, with all of the gravitas of prize-winners. They are, both of them, winning books – they shine with sincerity and reach and craft – and they won me over with minimal resistance on my part.' (Introduction)

Subtle Imaginations : Resistant Realities Three Recent Collections Martin Langford , 2023 single work review
— Appears in: Meanjin , December vol. 82 no. 4 2023; (p. 172-179)

— Review of Monster Field Lucy Dougan , 2022 selected work poetry ; Mourning Is Women's Business Lee Cataldi , 2022 selected work poetry ; At the Altar of Touch Gavin Yuan Gao , 2022 selected work poetry
'As happens most years, there was a good haul of collections with energy, sustained craft and distinctive perspectives. Nothing explosive - no first performances of 'The Rite of Spring' - but poetry doesn't operate like that. It emerges, rather, through the bubbling accretion of the work of poets maturing at different times, pursuing different possibilities and inventing different styles to articulate them with. There were a small number of high-profile selections this year, such as Sarah Holland-Batt's excellent 'The Jaguar', a handful of Selecteds surveying the poetry of some who have been at the coalface for many decades - Alan Wearne, Jill Jones, Andrew Taylor - together with the regular offering of ambitious and thoughtful collections such as the books reviewed here, which inevitably only represent a selection of those that deserve attention.' 

(Publication abstract)

Last amended 12 Nov 2021 11:42:57
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