Cirrus@Austlit

'In this article, the author shares his experiences of reading poems of poet Luke Morcom such as "My Loving Wife" and mentions that his friend sent this poem through email.'  (Publication abstract)

'In 1770, Wolfgang von Kempelen stood in front of Empress Maria Theresa at her court in Vienna and proclaimed to have built a mechanical man that could beat humans at chess. The mechanical man - or 'the Turk', as von Kempelen named him - was life-sized, carved from maple-wood, dressed in ornate robes and a turban, and sat behind a large cabinet, on top of which was a chess set. Von Kempelen opened the cabinet to reveal a labyrinth of levers, cogs and clockwork machinery. He then closed the cabinet, inserted a large key, wound it up, and after some ticking and whirring the Turk lifted its head, studied the board, took hold of a white pawn and moved it forward two places. News of the Turk spread, and chess masters from across the empire travelled for their opportunity to play the machine; they usually returned home defeated. For the next few decades the Turk toured Europe and America, trouncing some of the most formidable minds of the time - Catherine the Great, Benjamin Franklin, Napoleon. Legend has it that Napoleon tested the Turk by making illegal moves, but the Turk grew fed up, and swiped the board.' (Publication abstract)

'It is a day when compulsion is getting the better of me. I have plenty of work to do, and a clear list written, setting out my day, task by task. But after breakfast, I spend too much time checking emails and Twitter in that first crucial hour, and so, throughout the rest of the morning I am distracted. I feel compelled, in an almost physical way, to check my email and Twitter at the end of every task. And then, if I go to the bathroom or get a glass of water, my phone accompanies me, and I’m looking at things on Instagram. No escape. It is now 12.30pm, and so far, entirely unproductive. I have an unpleasant droning in my head that comes from the endless feed of other people’s thoughts.'  (Introduction)

'Debut collection by a young poet whose simple, funny and deceptively naïve poems engage with the virtual realities of the internet.

'The Honeymoon Stage is a collection of poems written for friends on the internet over a five-year period. These friends were spread across the globe, and most of them the poet had never met, and will never know. Poetry was the method by which the correspondents felt they could authenticate themselves to one another, despite their separation in space, and their friendships being mediated through screens. The poems engage with the flattened syntax of internet language, registering its awkwardness while bringing human qualities to the centre of the exchange. They inhabit a surreal world marked by shifting identities and video-clip encounters, blog-like intimacies and strange scraps of information, discovering in this reality new ways of thinking and feeling.' (Publication summary)

'This edition of Verge (Monash University's annual anthology of creative writing) features the best of Monash University's writers, as well as a selection of other emerging Australian and international wordsmiths. For the first time, Verge features the winning entries of the prestigious Monash Prize awarded as part of the Emerging Writers Festival. Verge 2014: Everything and Nothing represents diversity and offers a wide scope of short fiction and poetry without restraint or classification, other than talent.' (Publication summary)