'In his 14th collection, Harvest Lingo, Murri poet Lionel Fogarty continues his decades-long commitment to disrupting colonial language, colonial thought and their machineries of oppression. Fogarty creates poems in which language is liberated, feeding back against colonialism and strengthening languages that have been pressured by colonial linguistics. The relationship between speech and writing is constantly being bridged. But Fogarty’s stunning poiesis is much more than disruption: it also suggests new and generative ways of reading poetry across cultural spaces. The lingo of a locality is intrinsically tied into its collective identification and is a way of expressing community. Lingo may be familiar and particular, and in some ways exclusive. It can also be an imposition or co-opted by exploiters and thus become alienating. In Harvest Lingo it has many inflections.' (Introduction)
'Where does Jo belong? Not back in England. Not in art school. Not even in Sydney, as the life she has just started to build is slipping away. So, with no clear path ahead, wanting adventure, wanting a clean slate – and needing to fulfil her visa requirements – the 27-year-old heads to Broome to spend a few months picking mangoes on a remote farm. She shrugs off her friend’s warnings about horror film scenarios and, upon arrival, is only a little bit unsettled by the display of missing persons posters at the bus stop.' (Introduction)
