Cirrus@Austlit

'My first real encounter with John Tranter's work. outside the miscellaneous poetry journals that somehow found their way into the local public library, came about unexpectedly enough through the efforts of John Millett, editor of the soon-to-be-defunct Pomp Australia. Millen, successor to Crate Perry. was liberal with the Poetry AuStrulia and South Head Press backlist and, along with books by Bruce Bearer, Noel Stock, Jennifer Maiden. Douglas Stewart and others. sent me a copy of Tranter's debut collection. Parallax (1970)...' (Introduction)

'In recent years, the scholarship of Bruce Pascoe (bolstered and supplemented by environmental historians such as Bill Gammage) has arguably shifted mainstream Australia's understanding of Indigenous culture from nomadic to agricultural, and the disaster of Black Summer has further moved settler Australia towards an appreciation of Indigenous cultural practices as an amelioration of ecological disaster and climate change (Pascoe 2018; Gammage and Pascoe 2021; Gammage 20U). At least part of the rhetorical power of this work is owed to its drawing directly on the settler archive that presents early historical accounts of land as 'verdant. open. pleasant and gentle', as 'gentleman's parks, thereby. demonstrating what pre-invasion land looked like under Indigenous custodianship. management, and care (Gammage and Pascoe 2021.25).' 

(Introduction)

'As one of the nation's oldest progressive literary institutions. Overland has been part of the intellectual and creative fabric and output of Melbourne for over half a century. Overland was first established in 1954, under the auspices of the Realist Writers Group in Melbourne. with Melbournian writer and activist Stephen Murray-Smith as the first editor-in-chief. In Overland's first edition, Murray-Smith wrote that the Journal would always endeavour to publish poetry and short stories. articles and criticism by new and by established writers. He wrote that 'It will aim high ... (bull will make a special point of developing writing talent in people of diverse backgrounds'. ' (Introduction)