Cirrus@Austlit

'Prize-winning poet Jordie Albiston’s third book is dramatic. It spotlights the crunch times in the life of Jean Lee 1919-1951 from adventurous girl to hanged woman. It captures the times, the completion of the Harbour Bridge, the youth culture of the milk bars, the 'overpaid, oversexed, over here’ American servicemen during the War, the invasion of petty crims for the 1949 Melbourne Cup won by Faxzami. Above all, it understands. Jean's last God-troubled speeches raise her mean life to suburban tragedy.

'This collected edition includes all the poems from David Campbell's individual volumes from 1949 to 1979, with the exception of the translations, Moscow Trefoil (1975) and Seven Russian Poets (1979). I have rearranged them in strict chronological order of first publication, so far as this can be established.'

Source: Introduction.

'This is the first publication of Michael Dransfield selected poems, gathered from every book in his relatively considerable output. They were chosen by poet and critic John Kinsella, whose lively Introduction positions this indelible Australian poet at an international level.

'Always controversial, poet Michael Dransfield's life story has tended to obscure his talent and achievement. Tales of drugs, sexual ambiguity and mythical and ancestral kingdoms have become iconic in the story of Michael Dransfield.

'The follow-up to the international bestselling The Monkey’s Mask, Dorothy Porter’s Crete is an astonishing collection that traverses Greek myth and Russian poets, the memory of cigarettes and the wild abandon of love.

'Crete is a heady mix of dark humour, archaeology, breathtaking eroticism, risk-taking and effortless economy. It is a book by a writer at the peak of her highly original powers.

'This collection includes 81 poems in six cycles'.

'Dorothy Porter's fourth poetry collection is an exhilarating ride through passions found, imagined and richly lived.

'From a modern, petrol-headed Carmen and Don José to pairs of polar explorers and silent twins, an intersection of birds and asylums, reflections on vanished love and new desire, Driving Too Fast bursts with vitality, a horsepower rhythm and language that turns on a dime.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Dorothy Porter’s sixth poetry collection (1997–2001) travels the solar system for comets, distant moons and other heavenly bodies before returning to South America and the Northern Territory and finishing with a selection of commissioned works—including one for the 2000 Sydney Olympics and one for the collection Dick for a Day.

'This collection sees a number of emerging themes and images that Dorothy Porter would further explore in later works such as her verse novel Wild Surmise—which was short-listed for the Miles Franklin Award in 2003 and won the Adelaide Festival Award in 2004.

'As the new Superintendent at Callan Park Psychiatric Hospital, Dr Peter Cyren must perform medical alchemy - turn diseased minds into healthy ones. But in the case of his own soul, this sacred process works irrevocably in reverse.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Alex Leefson is astronomy's glamour girl, in love with the satellite Europa and the equally unreachable Phoebe. Meanwhile, her husband Daniel mourns the demise of his marriage and his life. Full of Dorothy Porter's customary bite and sensuality, Wild Surmise is an engrossing duet between two passionately estranged voices. An intensely moving verse novel of passions and vulnerabilities, love and death.' (Publication summary)

Bentley has always been lucky.  He won a chook at the pub once.
Gary’s a delightful raconteur and is in great demand as an after dinner speaker. 
Diane goes off her brain.  She’s going on surfari next week.
Sandy’s always on the move.  It’s a mad whirl.  
Richard’s got some incredibly tactile friends in the underground.  

'Bentley’s just won the doubles tennis with Gary, he’s hit the jackpot by marrying a top bird like Sandy, his new stereo set has got Richard’s tick of approval and the house warming party was a real turn.

'Three-act play that satirises the excesses of the 1980s in Australia. It presents a cruelly funny portrait of an entrepreneurial operator, Laurie, the rags-to-riches takeover king of the decade. Includes a postscript and the program for the first production, held at Melbourne's Playbox Theatre in July 1993.'

Source: Currency Press ed.