Sam Ryan Sam Ryan i(26167850 works by)
Gender: Male
The material on this page is available to AustLit subscribers. If you are a subscriber or are from a subscribing organisation, please log in to gain full access. To explore options for subscribing to this unique teaching, research, and publishing resource for Australian culture and storytelling, please contact us or find out more.

Works By

Preview all
1 A Tragic Television Star, the Brain of a Genius, and a Prize-winning Pig – 3 New Books Are Brilliant Examples of Contemporary Australian Poetry Sam Ryan , 2024 single work review
— Appears in: The Conversation , 24 June 2024;

— Review of Television Kate Middleton , 2024 selected work poetry ; Einstein’s Brain Mark O'Flynn , 2022 selected work poetry ; Fat Chance : Journalism Poems Kent MacCarter , 2024 selected work poetry

'All art comes from some abstraction of reality. What is written on the page or painted on the canvas is the artist’s representation of something real. Through that representation, the real becomes abstracted and is transformed into art.' 

1 What Time Is It? : Two Very Different Collections about Identity Sam Ryan , 2024 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , June no. 465 2024; (p. 54-55)

— Review of The Blue Cocktail Audrey Molloy , 2023 selected work poetry ; Ekho Roslyn Orlando , 2024 selected work poetry

'Identity is a hard thing to define. What makes us who we are? We have social identities, shaped by our affinities and proximities to social groups, cultural identities informed by values, languages, rituals, traditions, and a whole multitude of different phenomena that combine to make us who we are.' (Introduction) 

1 Sam Ryan Review of Jim Davidson, Emperors in Lilliput: Clem Christesen of Meanjin and Stephen Murray-Smith of Overland Sam Ryan , 2024 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Journal of Biography and History , no. 8 2024;

— Review of Emperors in Lilliput : Clem Christesen of Meanjin and Stephen Murray-Smith of Overland Jim Davidson , 2022 single work biography
'Jim Davidson, the second editor of Meanjin, introduces his book Emperors in Lilliput
by noting that, while ‘there’s nothing so dead as last week’s newspapers’, literary
journals are different. You ‘may have picked up an old one, lying in a corner, and
been surprised by its quality’ (p. vii). The contents of a newspaper last a week at most,
but the contents of a literary journal can be timeless.' 

(Introduction)

1 Diversity and Invention : Two New Poetry Collections Sam Ryan , 2023 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , November no. 459 2023; (p. 43-44)

— Review of Icaros Tamryn Bennett , 2020 selected work poetry ; Moon Wrasse Willo Drummond , 2023 selected work poetry
'Tamryn Bennett’s Icaros and Willo Drummond’s Moon Wrasse both use the natural as their central motif. Nature has of course always been a font of inspiration for poets. These two poets draw from that font in vastly different ways. Bennett’s title refers to a form of South American song that is chanted during rituals of cleansing and healing that involve plants. Drummond’s refers to a hermaphroditic fish, the moon wrasse, which acts as a symbol of transformation.' 

(Introduction)          

1 Scarecrow Suit : A Selection from Ron Pretty Sam Ryan , 2023 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , May no. 453 2023; (p. 51)

— Review of 101 Poems Ron Pretty , 2022 selected work poetry
'Ron Pretty has published eight collections of poetry and five chapbooks over his long career. His latest and perhaps last book, 101 Poems, from Pitt Street Poetry’s Collected Works series, includes pieces from his previous collections, as well as some new work. We start with The Habitat of Balance (1988) and go all the way through to his most recent collection, The Left Hand Mirror (2017), before encountering a selection of new poems.'

 (Introduction) 

X