Cirrus@Austlit

'Put bushfire and a poet together and you get an electrifying, rare, poetic insight into the drama of fire and its aftermath.

'Time of Fire, Harry Laing's fourth poetry collection, zeroes in on his experience in the 2019/20 bushfires - both as a landholder living on the edge of Monga National Park on the NSW Southern Tablelands and as a volunteer with the NSW Rural Fire Service.

'It's as if the fire itself was dictating these poems. Fire as the elemental force driving the narrative- from lightning strikes in a time of extreme drought and heat to the sheer ferocity of the fire's rampage, followed by ashen silence.

'Laing's grief at what's been lost is lightened by his witnessing of the regenerative power of the forest, his hearing the first treecreeper days after the fire, sighting the first emerald shoots of tree ferns. And throughout he salutes the powerful depth of connection within the Braidwood community and people's care for each other in that most threatening of times: the time of fire.'  (Publication summary)

'unsettled' is a collection of broad thematic and formal range. Laing renders our history, our current ecological crisis and some of our contemporary mores into a rich, tumbling music, as memorable as it is accessible. The poems that revisit the author's past are especially poignant: closing some doors as the windows open to poetry's crisp, delicious air.' (Publication summary) 

'RapperBee – poems to give you a buzz is Harry Laing’s new collection of poetry featuring Anne Ryan’s brilliant and anarchic B&W illustrations.

'Children won’t be able to resist the word-play and will love to read the poems out loud.'

Source : publisher's blurb

'Children will love the humour and catchy rhymes of the twenty-nine poems featuring manic TVs, monsters and everything in between.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Shape-poems, verb-poems, chants, rhymes, songs and rap, they’re all just jumping off the page in this collection of illustrated poems. They’re not just funny, they’ll make you see the world differently. Featuring Alien Dads, Jellyfish, Acrobat Rats, Wheelie-bin raps and the incredible Supertap. Plus Clinton De Vere’s illustrations make it an even more fun experience.' (Publication summary)