Cirrus@Austlit

'In a new rule-changing level of discourse, in this unique and peerless collection, a China Shelf is at once a location threatened by Australian nuclear submarines, and a space for the necessary ornaments of civilisation, whether they are artifacts, human rights or memory. Here, this is a symbolic space also represented by the concept of a physical china shelf. The multifaceted artifacts on the China Shelf manifest throughout the poems. In one sense, they are described as physical objects on a shelf, able to be placed, touched, appreciated and analysed. On it, models of nuclear submarines and military vehicles are as accessible as its exquisite ornaments, relaxed Art Deco nudes, Chinese lions, Tang horses, figurines of Robert Burns and dancers in red tones created with gold, water-carrier or arched Chinese ships. In another sense, such objects have counterparts in the narratives...' (Publication summary)

'Intrinsic to this collection is the image of an ox with metal as flesh or metal as armour, alive, on watch and casting light on perilous situations, signifying the importance of veracity, labour, perseverance, tactics and endurance. Here, in superb experiment, the poet inhabits this essence and examines it, combining personal poetic themes and continuing her tireless exploration of political guises and the nature of passion and power.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'This new poetry collection reflects Aneurin Bevan's observation that 'Socialism is a biological necessity'. Here, socialism branches out from being a necessity to being the human condition itself, or survival's impulse.

'Here, biological necessity can be the re-appropriation of elegies; keeping the incarnation of the beloved close, never fearing or etherealising it; Elizabeth Macquarie speaking of abuses of power with President Trump's mother Mary Anne MacLeod as they watch fireworks over Sydney Harbour; Maiden and her daughter watching a meteor shower in Covid lockdown; the definiteness of peace; writing having a function similar to a new vaccine; Ghislaine Maxwell in safe paper clothes in prison; Gore Vidal watching over Julian Assange and deciding it was not automatic biology that his country desert him; the similarity between symbols of a pandemic and symbols of empire; Maiden's female protagonist, Clare, mirrored in a Darling Harbour hotel window, thinking of Syria, Kurds, oil and Russia with George her partner; Vidal watching Assange's trial and thinking of the testimony: that it is safer for an 'informant to make a statement about someone who is a ''nobody'', than someone who is genuinely dangerous'; Maiden's ancestor in India naming his new family after his first children and wife who died in a typhoon; maize offered to a deity instead of human sacrifice; the continuing glitter of a river freezing in a dream; the need for someone to be who they were pretending; Nasca Lines in Peru letting Carina - a hero created by the Carina Galaxy - rescue Andean mountain cats; Abbie Hoffman's unfading impact; Donald Trump skyping with Clare and George as Human Rights observers on the 2020 U.S. election night; the phrase 'black water' reinvented as a lyric, not a mercenary firm; Eleanor Roosevelt suspended in no place, unable to visit her earlier idea of her own Hillary Clinton; or La Niña - pacific, lit by lanterns, counteracting forests on fire.Throughout, biological necessity is not only something physical, psychological or spiritual - it is also empathetic and practical, the elements of a discourse in lyricism and humanity between poet and reader.'

 Source: Publisher's blurb.

'The Cuckold and the Vampires is Jennifer Maiden’s extraordinary over-32,700-word subjective essay on aspects of conservative political manipulation of art and literature, including the experimental, and the conservatives' creation of conflict - ranging from Medieval to Ruskin, from Pollock to contemporary Australia. Maiden has observed: ‘One purpose of the essay is to try to warn against microcosmic unwariness in a situation where overwhelming macrocosmic forces are at play…there are all sorts of twists and turns during the course of my essay. My focus is on the wider causes of damage and the nature of power in art… we will continue to try here to respect what Pinter considered mandatory and to smash the mirror of the microcosm, to try to look at the macrocosm behind it.’ The essay is immense in scope and immensely enjoyable, astute and witty.'

(Source: publisher's blurb)

'The Espionage Act is the new poetry collection by the internationally renowned author, Jennifer Maiden. With her characteristic clear, powerful focus and crisp but sumptuous lyrical style, she analyses espionage in many senses, from the U.S. 1917 Espionage Act to the reflections on the Deep State, to tactical levels in conservative espionage, to its sexuality of fear, to covert promotion and funding of experimental art, to its reactions to primal digital technology, and to the mind itself in its acts of espionage.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'The title brookings: the noun has different levels of significance: venturing into a brook's safe appearance, when it will turn to a river, and in extension, a noun to signify the misuse of something politically safe and sure as a distraction to conceal something politically dangerous. he poems observe how political decisions are concealed by ideas of rescue, protection, safety.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.