Cirrus@Austlit

'As my book became increasingly eccentric, I thought ‘yes, that’s as it should be’. How else to do justice to a maverick musician, described by his one-time girlfriend Brix Smith as ‘a cross between Mozart and Keith Moon’?

—Paul Munden

'For all its eccentricity, this book – the first ever study of Nigel Kennedy’s exceptional talent – delves into complex questions: about the relationship between so-called genius and unconventional behaviour; the true purpose of education; the freedom of the interpreter; connections between music and poetry, music and sport; and the role of the artist as advocate of political and humanitarian causes.

'This is a book that revels in the non-conformative nature of its subject, and the principle of living life with truly individual purpose. It speaks to fans and detractors alike; to musicians, both professional and amateur; also to the general, curious reader not only about music but a wealth of associated cultural issues.' (Publication summary) 

'In this volume, five prose poets explore the Five major oceans as they are currently classified: the Pacific, the Atlantic, the Indian, the Southern and the Arctic. Each 21-part sequence of poems is a particular-and sometimes oblique-rumination on one of these vast bodies of water. Together they offer an inspiring and sometimes troubling exploration of our relationship with what is, essentially, a single oceanic entity.'  (Publication summary)

'In these prose poem sequences, five different tastes are explored, not only with reference to food and drink,but also through their metaphorical use. There are innumerable ways of ‘tasting’ and apprehending theworld, and these poems canvass a wide range of them while also encouraging readers to consider their own diverse tastes, preferences and experiences.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Whether in the Venetian footsteps of Vivaldi, at the birth of the Owen and Sassoon violins or the score of a Sam Peckinpah film, these poems present a wealth of musical scenarios, all interconnected in their themes, tonality and form. Their reverberations reach across time and space, from England and Italy to the Australian outback, with the visual arts also in the mix. And yet the core of this book is deeply personal, the poet present as a ten-year-old boy, lover, grandfather – or anachronistic witness – at the various trials of life through which creativity and even humour somehow flourishes.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Hesiod’s Five Ages famously proides a vision of the decline of human society that has resonated for many centuries. In this anthology, five poets take Hesiod’s versions of the golden, silver, bronze, heroic and iron ages as their starting points to craft five individual ‘chapbooks’ of prose poetry – not only exploring notions from Hesiodbut also venturing into many new concepts that reconceptualise these ages.These twenty-first century poems challenge many of the archaic Greek poet’s assumptions and ideas, writing back to the ancient world with bravura while employing quintessentially contemporary inflections and preoccupations.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'On 18 April, 1930, at 8.45pm, the BBC announced: ‘There is no news.’ Piano music played for the rest of the 15-minute bulletin.

'So the story goes.

'90 poets from across the world reflect on a this marker of a time before the 24-hour news cycle, before the ubiquity of news and information that seems to haunt us through our daily lives. Through this anthology there are poems that capture that moment of nothing but piano music making up an evening news bulletin, poems that contrast this with today’s news, and personal stories grounded in the intervening years.'

(Source: publisher's blurb)

'On 21 July, 1969, Neil Armstrong became the first human to step foot on the moon, uttering those famous words: ‘That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.’ To mark the fiftieth anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing, 50 poets from around the world were asked to reflect upon the achievement of Apollo 11 and our constantly evolving notions of ‘space’.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Prosody involves the elements and techniques that attend to the making of poetry, even free verse poetry and hybrid poetic works. Prose poets may work with sentences and paragraphs rather than lines and stanzas, but they too value poetic techniques highly. These five chapbooks explore the relationship of prose poetry to various aspects of prosody. This occasions considerable inventiveness on the part of all contributors and results in a wide variety of moving and entertaining prose poetry.'  (Publication summary)

'In Abstractions, 10 poets were tasked with addressing each of 10 abstractions: Conjecture, Obligation, Nonsense, Space, Pleasure, Identity, Rhythm, Accuracy, Cost, and Youth.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'To what extent does the poetic line bear the stamp of a particular poetic personality? Is that, in any case, a desirable thing? Do individual poets have their own rules about how the line behaves – the distance it travels, to what purpose, and when and how it breaks – or is it constantly adapted for purpose? Are poets even aware of their process and, if so, honest and open about it? In this paper I consider the various (and varying) uses of the line by poets who have influenced me most profoundly, with examples from my own work to demonstrate my learning and further experiments. Specific reference is made to the influence of cinematic editing, and the role of the line in a poem’s essential memorability. Also addressed are the different effects of the stretch and breaking of the line on the page and when orally delivered.'  (Introduction)

'In Volume VI of The Life and Adventures of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, Laurence Sterne leaves page 147 entirely blank, in order that readers should create for themselves an image in their minds: ‘as like your mistress as you can——as unlike your wife as your conscience will let you’. In 2016, the Laurence Sterne Trust commissioned 147 writers and artists to put their imaginings onto the page, in whatever material form they might choose. The resulting works were exhibited at Shandy Hall, toured to further venues, and auctioned online. In this paper, two of the writers involved consider the importance of Sterne’s original gesture and its ongoing relevance in a digital age, with its emphasis on interactivity. The paper explores how various artists grappled with the complex issues of making manifest their reactions to Sterne’s invitation. It builds on papers relating to two previous Shandy Hall projects interpreting Sterne’s visual gestures within his text: ‘The Black Page’ and ‘Emblem of My Work’.'  (Introduction)

'In AD 8, Publius Ovidius Naso, the poet Ovid, was exiled from Rome by emperor Augustus for composing verses that touched on scandal in the imperial court. Famously grief-stricken, he burnt his manuscript of what would become one of the world's most celebrated anthologies of verse tales, Metamorphoses, which only survived because his friends circulated their copies of it. To celebrate Ovid's 2,000th anniversary, 100 poets were invited to respond to Metamorphoses with new poems that explore the many contemporary resonances in that seminal work.' (Publication summary)