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Van Ikin Van Ikin i(A12769 works by) (a.k.a. Van George Ikin; Iken)
Born: Established: 1951 Sydney, New South Wales, ;
Gender: Male
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Works By

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1 Australia (with Papua New Guinea) Van Ikin , single work review
— Review of The Rearrangement Alex Skovron , 1988 selected work poetry
1 Australia Nathan Hobby , Van Ikin , 2022 single work
— Appears in: The Journal of Commonwealth Literature , December vol. 57 no. 4 2022; (p. 736–762)

'Australia spent 2021 trying to limit the spread of Covid-19, before finally admitting defeat in the face of the Delta variant and letting it run through the community. Most Australians were in lockdown for many weeks; Melbourne, the most affected city, was subject to 262 days of restricted movement over 2020 and 2021. The headlines, meanwhile, were dominated by a slow roll-out of Covid vaccines. One anthology was a direct response to the Covid experience, Lockdown Poetry: The Covid Long Haul, edited by Rose Lucas. “In these poems,” writes reviewer Belinda Calderone, “I was struck by the beautiful detail, the naming of specific flora and fauna, as though our shrunken worlds encouraged us to look at things more closely”. Calderone observes that “the pandemic threw everything we knew into flux, forcing us to look at our lives anew, and sometimes to shed parts of ourselves we had long held on to…”, adding that “[i]n times of collective suffering throughout human history, poets are the ones who are able to name what seems unnameable” (Rochford Street Review, 8 April, see Anthologies). As a coda to the release of How to End a Story: Diaries 1995–1998 (the third volume of her diaries — see below), Helen Garner separately published her “Lockdown Diaries” in The Monthly:

As the world closes in on itself, the simplest acts grow mythic. A woman reports shifting a tree in her garden that was not thriving: “I used a mattock. I lifted it above my head. The dirt fell all over me.” A nurse in ICU sets up a laptop for a woman to hear her grandchildren singing to her while she dies. An Olympic diver on the high platform turns her back on the abyss, places her palms beside her feet, and unfolds with terrifying slowness into a perfect, motionless handstand. (The Monthly October, see Non-Fiction)' (Introduction)

 

1 Farewell to David Ireland, Three-times Miles Franklin Winner and Master of Mosaic Fiction Van Ikin , 2022 single work obituary (for David Ireland )
— Appears in: The Conversation , 1 August 2022;

'Australian novelist David Ireland, winner of three Miles Franklin awards in the 1970s, and recipient of the Order of Australia in 1981, has died at the age of 94.' 

1 Annual Bibliography of Commonwealth Literature 2020 : Australia Nathan Hobby , Van Ikin , 2021 single work bibliography
— Appears in: The Journal of Commonwealth Literature , December vol. 56 no. 4 2021; (p. 502-522)

'In a publishing feat, the anthology Fire, Flood, Plague: Australian Writers Respond to 2020 appeared in the December of the very year it was responding to. Editor Sophie Cunningham brought together 25 essays originally published on the Guardian Australia website. She writes in her introduction:

as the new year dawned — violent, smoky — there were bushfires to contend with, then air quality so dangerous my … loved ones were trapped in their house. Soon enough there were hailstorms smashing into their workplaces. More fires, floods, then the plague. On it went. We understood that summer fires followed by late summer floods were considered to be part of the cascading effect of climate change. We understood that deforestation led to an increased likelihood of pandemics, but frankly, people can’t look every which way all at once and anyway it seemed that the genie was out of the bottle, the cat was out of the bag, the tipping point had tipped and now we were in the territory of the unprecedented, the territory of pivoting, the territory of grief and loss.'

(Introduction)

1 Australia Nathan Hobby , Van Ikin , 2020 single work bibliography essay
— Appears in: The Journal of Commonwealth Literature , vol. 55 no. 4 2020; (p. 505-526)
'The global COVID-19 pandemic of 2020 in which we write was preceded in Australia by a shock election result in May 2019 and the worst bushfire crisis the nation has known over the summer of 2019-20. The Labor opposition had been expected to easily take power in the federal election and end six years of the centre-right Coalition government. Those years had been marked by leadership instability, inaction on climate change and cuts to the public sector. Yet in a minor echo of the Brexit result and Donald Trump’s election in 2016, the polls were wrong by a wide margin, and prime minister Scott Morrison’s government was returned with a small majority. In Prosperity Gospel biographer Erik Jensen contrasts the confidence and certainty of Morrison – a Pentecostal Christian presenting as the “Daggy Dad” of the nation – and the personal uncertainty of opposition leader Bill Shorten, whose party brought a comprehensive suite of social democratic policies to the election (see Non-Fiction). It was but one of a number of explanations for a result which baffled many.' (Introduction)
1 Australia Nathan Hobby , Van Ikin , 2019 single work bibliography
— Appears in: The Journal of Commonwealth Literature , December vol. 54 no. 4 2019; (p. 513-532)
The increasing contestation around “Australianness” has been dramatically highlighted by the reception of Behrouz Boochani’s No Friend but the Mountains: Writings from Manus Prison, with one reviewer writing that “It may well stand as one of the most important books published in Australia in two decades, the period of time during which our refugee policies have hardened into shape – and hardened our hearts in the process” (“CG”, SP1 4 Aug.). After his Australia-bound boat was intercepted in 2013 as part of Australia’s “Operation Sovereign Borders”, he was eventually transferred to a detention centre on Papua New Guinea’s Manus Island. Boochani, a Kurdish journalist who writes for the Guardian and often breaks news on Twitter, remains on Manus Island along with other “detainees” still there after the detention centre’s closure in 2017. The Australian media has not been allowed to access Manus, so writers working from detention are key to our understanding of this part of the Australian story. Boochani smuggled his memoir out of Manus in encrypted messages sent from a contraband phone, writing in Farsi which was then translated by Omid Tofighian.' (Introduction)
1 Australia Nathan Hobby , Van Ikin , Margaret Stevenson , 2018 single work criticism bibliography
— Appears in: The Journal of Commonwealth Literature , December vol. 53 no. 4 2018; (p. 526–545)
1 Australia Van Ikin , Margaret Stevenson , Nathan Hobby , 2017 single work criticism
— Appears in: The Journal of Commonwealth Literature , December vol. 52 no. 4 2017; (p. 574–606)

'A defining moment in Australian literature in 2016 involved two unlikely protagonists — an American novelist and a Sudanese-Australian engineer. It happened at the Brisbane Writers’ Festival in September when journalist and author Lionel Shriver gave the keynote address defending the right of writers to wear “different hats”, while wearing a Mexican sombrero, referencing a controversy at an American college over cultural appropriation. Fiction, Shriver said, will always involve writing about other cultures and identities, and she hit out at the way she felt identity politics made writers reluctant to do this. A number of audience members walked out of the talk and several of these wrote opinion pieces, including 25-year-old Yassmin Abdel-Magied, a mechanical engineer as well as a debut memoirist in 2016. Abdel-Magied labelled Shiver’s speech “a celebration of the unfettered exploitation of the experiences of others, under the guise of fiction” (Guardian 10 September 2016, emphasis original). The Guardian published her response and then, three days later, Shriver’s original speech (13 September 2016).'  (Introduction)

1 Annual Bibliography of Commonwealth Literature 2015 : Australia Van Ikin , Margaret Stevenson , Nathan Hobby , Keira McKenzie , 2016 single work bibliography
— Appears in: The Journal of Commonwealth Literature , December vol. 51 no. 4 2016; (p. 501-506)
'2015 was “a standout year for the publishing of contemporary Australian poetry” in the view of reviewer Jacina Le Plastrier (Australian Book Review 377 December). Robert Adamson’s spectacular poetic career has led The Times Literary Supplement to describe him as “One of the finest Australian poets at work today” and he has recently been awarded a Chair in Poetry at University of Technology, Sydney. His latest collection, Net Needle, includes the winner of the 2011 William Blake Prize, “Via Negativa, The Divine Dark” in Part One of the collection. Part Two is, in the words of Geoff Page, “a vintage collection of autobiographical poems” which is “probably the book’s high point”; Part Three is a series of literary tributes to various poets while Part Four is “more miscellaneous … culminating in the important poem ‘The Kingfisher’s Soul’” (SMH 16 May 2015). Expressing an equally enthusiastic response to the collection, reviewer A. J. Carruthers observes that Adamson “has worked in both experimental and romantic styles” and reflects the influence of Robert Duncan and Robert Creeley, but “Adamson is at his best when he eschews the romanticism of conventional verse style and explores the grittiness, impurity, and sheer difficulty of language” (ABR 377 December). Page concurs in this view, declaring that Adamson is at “his most characteristic and memorable” when his work involves “gritty realism with a lyrical edge; the ‘hands-on’ knowledge of a physical craft; the opening-out into wider implications about people’s emotional lives” (SMH 16 May). (Introduction)'
1 Australia Van Ikin , Margaret Stevenson , Keira McKenzie , 2015 single work bibliography
— Appears in: The Journal of Commonwealth Literature , December vol. 50 no. 4 2015; (p. 417-440)
1 Annual Bibliography Of Commonwealth Literature 2013 Van Ikin , Keira McKenzie , 2014 single work bibliography
— Appears in: The Journal of Commonwealth Literature , December vol. 49 no. 4 2014; (p. 453-474)

'This year’s bibliography includes a large number of items carried over from the past year (entries are marked as 2012 publications in each case) and, in the case of Canberra poet Timoshenko Aslanides, listings go back even further. Many of his works had been missed because they were not covered by our primary review sources. The Australian compilers hope to cast a wider net in future years by citing more newspaper reviews. Meanwhile, for compilers and readers alike, the “silver lining” in this omission provides the opportunity for a short but genuinely enthusiastic review of a long career.' (Authors introduction)

1 Annual Bibliography of Commonwealth Literature 2012 Van Ikin , Keira McKenzie , 2013 single work bibliography
— Appears in: The Journal of Commonwealth Literature , December vol. 48 no. 2 2013; (p. 457-460)
1 Annual Bibliography of Commonwealth Literature 2010 : Australia Van Ikin , Keira McKenzie , 2012 single work bibliography
— Appears in: The Journal of Commonwealth Literature , December vol. 47 no. 4 2012; (p. 453-467)
'In her introduction to Southerly 71(1), Elizabeth McMahon notes that "the quality of work we receive is humbling", a testament to "the richness and diversity of Australian writing". Despite the world's dire financial state, Australian literature seems to thrive, albeit sometimes in varied new forms. However, despite Australian politicians' proud boasts that the Australian economy is the "best in the world", any regular reader of the annual bibliographies for Australia would note that the last few years have seen a contraction in the overall quantity of work produced. The endurance of quality, as attested by Elizabeth McMahon, suggests that this may not be wholly lamentable, but it is a concern for a literary culture which has always prided itself on being multi-voiced and diverse. Many publications are now appearing from small but dedicated web-based publishing houses, and the compilers of this bibliography are exerting maximum effort to keep track of works from these sources, for they sometimes fail to be noticed in the mainstream sources upon which we have traditionally depended for our listing.' (Author's introduction)
1 Annual Bibliography of Commonwealth Literature 2010 : Australia Van Ikin , Keira McKenzie , 2011 single work bibliography
— Appears in: Journal of Commonwealth Literature , December vol. 46 no. 4 2011; (p. 557–572)
'In his editorial introduction for Southerly 70(1), David Brooks observes that Southerly's mandate, often missed by critics who find it their task-of-the-moment to review one issue or another, is to publish, almost exclusively, new writing by Australian poets, authors, critics and scholars, or commentary by critics and scholars on Australian writing. There are few print journals left now that do any such thing. Indeed it sometimes seems as if we are the last one standing. Whilst this year's bibliography demonstrates that Southerly is not the last journal to follow this tradition, the bibliography certainly attests to the prevalent attitude which has seen many journals direct their pages away from literature to general political or socio-political issues...' (from authors introduction, 558)
1 Annual Bibliography of Commonwealth Literature 2008 : Australia Van Ikin , Keira McKenzie , 2009 single work bibliography
— Appears in: The Journal of Commonwealth Literature , December vol. 44 no. 4 2009; (p. 3-24)
1 y separately published work icon Speculations : Fantasy, Horror, and Science Fiction in Australia Kim Wilkins (lead researcher), Van Ikin (lead researcher), Toni Johnson-Woods (lead researcher), St Lucia : The University of Queensland , 2011 17080590 2009 archive bibliography The Speculations research project, established in 2011, is a substantial study of Australian popular fiction. The research – which defines speculative fiction as including science fiction, horror, and fantasy – is focused on expanding the recognition of the important place 'popular' fiction has in Australian storytelling culture. It includes some young adult material.
1 y separately published work icon Australian Popular Fictions Kim Wilkins (lead researcher), Van Ikin (lead researcher), Toni Johnson-Woods (lead researcher), St Lucia : The University of Queensland , 2009-2011 17080350 2009 website criticism bibliography

Australian Popular Fictions is the umbrella term for a number of ongoing, related projects, led by Dr Kim Wilkins, Professor Van Ikin, and Dr Toni Johnson-Woods, that explore popular fiction and fiction genres.

It aimed to collect and expand the available information and scholarship relating to all forms of popular fiction including crime, fantasy, horror, pulp, graphic novels and comics, and lesbian- and gay-themed popular works and their authors. The project supports research into the long, prolific and profitable industry of mass market genre fiction publishing.

1 Annual Bibliography of Commonwealth Literature 2007 : Australia Van Ikin , Keira McKenzie , 2008 single work bibliography
— Appears in: The Journal of Commonwealth Literature , vol. 43 no. 4 2008; (p. 5-30)
1 When Insects Meet Humans, It All Adds Up Van Ikin , 2008 single work review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 29-30 November 2008; (p. 39)

— Review of Incandescence Greg Egan , 2008 single work novel
1 Beware the Man-Bear Van Ikin , 2008 single work review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 8-9 November 2008; (p. 30)

— Review of Tender Morsels Margo Lanagan , 2008 single work novel
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