Cirrus@Austlit

'The luminous insights of Cathy Altmann's new poetry collection, 'Stars Like Salt', emerge from the struggle and isolations of long COVID. From within the walled garden of illness, this book sharpens awareness, generating an attentive engagement with the precarious mechanisms of the body as well as with the intricate beauties and complexity of the world around us. These poems move from a close observation of microcosms of detail - the tendrils of cobweb, the details of domesticity, a tawny frogmouth on a branch - to show the interconnections with wider and more universal canvases of grief, dislocation and the various longings of the human heart. Although we might sometimes fail to translate or comprehend what the world is speaking, the very act of attending which is offered in these poems evokes possibilities of meaning and joy. Altmann's poems are themselves acts of profound receptivity - to sounds, rhythms and textures and also to the languages of emotion, the indeterminate realm of what might be wanting to be said. In these poems, the sweep of stars lifts our gaze beyond the boundaries of the self, while the particularity of salt reminds us of what is close to hand, such as tears and waves and healing.' (Publication summary)

'The 2023 Liquid Amber Poetry Prize invited poets to respond to the broad topic of 'home', which it turns out, can occupy a very rich yet often complex place within human experience. Poetry is, as ever, a powerful medium to reflect and communicate that complexity. In the variety and skillfulness of their poetic craft, the poets in this Long List anthology have provided readers with poignant and insightful reflections on how we might all understand the idea of home - a place that can hold us or become our undoing - as a vital human 'centre of gravity' to be acknowledged and grappled with, whether we inhabit it or not.' (Publication summary)

'In this collection the reader is taken through dream sequences, abstract, ekphrastic and imagistic poems as well as deeply personal poems of loss. The effect is a cumulative building of a quiet world of reflective resilience as the poet tries out possible ways to do what is almost impossible – to love and to say goodbye.'(Publication summary)

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'Drawing inspiration from a range of fictional detectives, Anne M. Carson's 'The Detective's Chair' is a whimsical collection of 32 short prose poems which suggests a creative correlation between problem solving and the crafting of a poem. In a playful homage to these colourful fictional sleuths, Carson focuses in on the nature of creativity itself, acknowledging that it's often in these moments of reflective 'sitting,' away from the bustle of clue collecting and intentional effort, that the pieces of the 'solution' - be it crime or poem - might start coming together. Each poem is beautifully illustrated with delicate line drawings by Rene Carrasco, bringing to life the different space of reflective possibility for that detective.'(Publication summary)

'Leaf is an extraordinary achievement of ecopoetic art. These poems, clustered into 5 sections, are in startling and intimate dialogue with things that grow, challenging the very fundamentals of perception and of language itself.

'Elvey’s delicate and innovative work embodies what it might actually mean to deconstruct the opposition between culture and nature, to hear both the voice of the human poet and the breathing, rustling world of bark and leaf, root and flower.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

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'In one of her most experimental works to date, Melbourne poet Dominique Hecq paints her words through time and space, swooping in and around a meditation on grief, death and rebirth and the age of uncertainty like a bird in flight. With the deftness of a master poet, Dominique loops each thread back on itself in a dance that keeps the reader on their toes. We pirouette with her into the great unknown. A thought-provoking poets-eye view on the strangeness of our times and the leaps of faith required to keep a sure footing while the world ties itself in knots. Guaranteed to give you a fresh perspective on this experiment we call life.' (Publication summary)

'An artistic collaboration reflecting on 2020: the fires of summer, the uncertainty of autumn isolation, the short reprieve of winter, lockdown of spring, and tentative transitions.  While 2020 in Melbourne was certainly challenging, these beautiful poems and paintings also point to ways in which crisis can lead to enrichment and reconnection.' (Publication summary)

'An anthology of 31 poems about the experiences of and reactions to the Covid pandemic from 21 established and emerging poets, Lockdown Poetry: The Covid Long Haul shows the resilience of poetry, its capacity to articulate the difficult and the joyous, the ordinary and the otherwise unspeakable. Thank heavens for the fearlessness of poetry and the tenacity and wisdom of its many voices. These poets are speaking to all of us about the effects of this Covid long haul – they are speaking what we all need to hear.'  (Publication summary)

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'Vibrant conversations in words and paint that speak to some of the challenges and richness of women’s lives: dealing with our bodies, interacting with others, living in the everyday as well as the imaginative, and coping with change and loss.' (Publication summary)