Cirrus@Austlit

'Idle Talk - Gwen Harwood Letters 1960-1964. This volume edited and with invaluable notes by Alison Hoddinott, comprises Gwen Harwood's fascinating, unexpurgated letters to Alison and Bill Hoddinott, during four crucial years from 1960-1964, a period which can be described as Harwood's creative floreat. They are also years in which her life-long relationships with A.D. Hope, James McAuley and Vincent Buckley begin, her friendships with Vivian and Sybille Smith and others consolidate, and in which Harwood was briefly notorious for her scandalous Bulletin acrostics and her confounding publication under several male pseudonyms.

'Approximately 10% of these letters have appeared already, in A Steady Storm of Correspondence (2001), but here we not only have the unedited versions, revealing even more than that volume, the complex and not always kind and tactful personality of Harwood (who more than once urges the Hoddinotts to 'burn these letters'), but numerous others which it might have been felt unwise to publish earlier, and from which not everyone - even Harwood herself - emerges unscathed. The collection is rich in insights not only into Harwood's mind, working methods, and circle, but also into the literary politics of one of the key periods in modern Australian poetry.' (Publication summary)

'Described by Peter Porter as the 'outstanding Australian poet of the twentieth century', Gwen Harwood's work is defined by a moving sensuality, a twinkling irreverence, and a sly wit. Harwood published over 420 works in her lifetime, many of which continue to be studied widely in schools and universities across Australia. This anthology brings together the best 100 of her poems, as selected and compiled by her son, the writer John Harwood.' (Publication summary)

'Gwen Harwood (1920-1995) is one of the best loved Australian poets of the twentieth century - and a fierce prankster, who published poems under half-a-dozen names and identities. By turns poignant, sensuous and mischievous, passionately musical, her poetry is marked by sure intelligence and a quicksilver, anti-authoritarian wit.

'This new selection of her poetry from 1943 to her death makes the full range of the work accessible for the first time to poetry-lovers in the northern hemisphere. With an introduction by the leading Harwood critic Gregory Kratzmann and the Australian poet Chris Wallace-Crabbe, who corresponded with Harwood, the selection includes hitherto little-known work along with poems which have become part of the central canon of Australian poetry.' (From the publisher's website.)