'Jan Colville's poetry is varied, direct and affecting. She has an eye for the absurd, the tragic, and that which is magical. Her mind is inquiring and philosophical and attuned to more than just the world of humans. Her 'small universe' is grounded in the 'hereness' of her present life in lutruwita-Tasmania, yet it spans the globe and even reaches towards the stars.'a small universe' is like a compass by which we are invited to navigate Jan Colville's life. Doing so, we are drawn by various lodestones - mother, father, neighbours, a wider community of people, creatures, things, memories, sorrows and yearnings. In charting this course, the poems nevertheless reveal the author's unswerving commitment to 'paying attention', especially to what connects us. She writes of 'here' because, beneath the glittering promises of globality and mass-production of cultures, she perceives isolation, rupture and disintegration. Reading Jan Colville's 'small universe' is a welcome antidote to this. Her writing is a reminder that who we are matters and deserves to be shared.' (Publication summary)
