Justin Clemens Justin Clemens i(A31920 works by) (birth name: Justin Dominic Clemens)
Born: Established: 1969 Hong Kong,
c
China,
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East Asia, South and East Asia, Asia,
;
Gender: Male
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Works By

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1 Two Postscripts to Barron Field in New South Wales : The Resurrection and the Great Seal Thomas H. Ford , Justin Clemens , 2024 single work essay
— Appears in: Cordite Poetry Review , 13 May no. 112 2024;

'Barron Field was, as we argued in our recent book Barron Field in New South Wales, responsible for the first volume of poetry published in Australia – a status flaunted in its title, First Fruits of Australian Poetry – and responsible also for the first articulation of the doctrine that later came to be known as terra nullius: that is, the foundational and genocidal legal fiction under which Australia was colonised by the British on the basis of its being previously uninhabited: i.e., that Aboriginal people, at least in the eyes of the law, simply didn’t exist, and, as not existing de jure, could be handled so as to become equally inexistent de facto. Our book examined what these two notable firsts had to do with each other. We claimed that it was no coincidence that the first Australian poet – the first person to have laid claim to that title, and indeed to have invented that category – was also the first legislator of terra nullius. Through close readings of the six poems that made up Field’s book from its second edition in 1823 – the first edition of 1819 contained just two poems – we argued that, far from being merely supplemental to his legal reformulation of the basis of colonisation, poetry was in fact instrumental to Field’s program to re-establish New South Wales on a new constitutional footing premised counterfactually on the non-existence of Aboriginal societies. To revert to a famous tag by Percy Shelley to which we paid considerable attention in the book: this poet really was the unacknowledged legislator of white Australia. In this foundational moment, the liberal colonial regime that underpinned future national development was poetic, we claimed, in inspiration, design and operation.'  (Introduction)

1 A Journal of the Plague Year #2 Justin Clemens , 2024 single work poetry
— Appears in: Anthology of Australian Verse 2023 2024; (p. 28)
1 The Problem of Evil Justin Clemens , 2023 single work poetry
— Appears in: Best of Australian Poems 2023 2023; (p. 116)
1 Justine & Jacquie and Their Adventures on the Other Side (An Excerpt) Jason Barker , Justin Clemens , 2023 single work prose
— Appears in: Meanjin , Winter vol. 82 no. 2 2023;
1 1 y separately published work icon A Foul Wind Justin Clemens , St Lucia : Hunter Publishers , 2023 25713733 2023 selected work poetry

'In A Dictionary of the English Language, Dr Johnson defines ‘foul’ as ‘full of gross humours.’ It can also mean discoloured, obscene, and profane. Yet the phrase ‘a foul wind’ is specifically nautical: it’s a wind that blows against the direction you want to go — that sends you off-course and into misadventure.

'Isn’t that poetry, though, pushing back against your intention and will? In this new collection, Justin Clemens finds himself lost, wrecked, and washed up on the isle of the damned. He discovers a world of undrinkable Dummheit, stuffed to the gills with cyberpreneurs and pseudonatural secretaries, downsizing corporations and corruption taskforces, ‘80s rappers and ‘90s drugs, planetary plague and terra nullius.

'With a nod to Restoration drama and contemporary philosophy, A Foul Wind is a tour-de-force of morality, politics, and love.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

1 7 y separately published work icon Barron Field in New South Wales : The Poetics of Terra Nullius Thomas H. Ford , Justin Clemens , Melbourne : Melbourne University Press , 2023 25544651 2023 single work biography

'What does the first poetry in Australia, written by the Judge who declared the land terra nullius, tell us about the singular nature of colonialism here?

'On 24 February 1817, Barron Field sailed into Sydney Harbour on the convict transport Lord Melville to a ceremonial thirteen-gun salute. He was there as the new Judge of the Supreme Court of Civil Judicature in New South Wales - the highest legal authority in the turbulent colony. Energetic and gregarious, Field immediately set about impressing his vision of a future Australia as a liberal and prosperous nation. He courted the colony's leading figures, engaged in scientific research and even founded Australia's first bank. He also wrote poetry: in 1819, he published First Fruits of Australian Poetry, the first book of poems ever printed in the country. In England, Field had been the theatre critic for The Times, and a friend of such major Romantic writers as William Wordsworth, Charles Lamb and Leigh Hunt. In New South Wales, he saw the chance to become a major figure himself…' (Publication summary)

1 Attachment Theory Justin Clemens , 2022 single work essay
— Appears in: Open Secrets : Essays on the Writing Life 2022;
1 y separately published work icon Scott McCulloch in Conversation Justin Clemens (interviewer), 2022 24911197 2022 single work interview

'Scott McCulloch in conversation with Justin Clemens about McCulloch's novel, Basin.'

1 Neoliberal Limerick with Hashtags i "To think that the think tanks of fate", Justin Clemens , 2021 single work poetry
— Appears in: Social Alternatives , October vol. 40 no. 3 2021; (p. 12)
1 A Journal of the Plague Year i "A white man in pajamas", Justin Clemens , 2020 single work poetry
— Appears in: Meanjin , Summer vol. 79 no. 4 2020;
1 Where Then Shall Hope and Fear Justin Clemens , 2020 single work essay
— Appears in: Meanjin , Spring vol. 79 no. 3 2020;

'On 3 April 2020, US Democrat and presidential hopeful Joe Biden—or more likely one of his team of social media minions—tweeted: ‘Now more than ever, we need to choose hope over fear. We will beat COVID-19. We will overcome this. Together.’ It’s hard not to appreciate the banality of this little squitter. Its kitschy burble so manfully yet sagely seeks to convey the urgency of the current situation; the starkness of our choices; the clear and present danger of a named enemy; the necessity and value of our solidarity. Behind Biden’s thumb-pumping bumpf lurks a lineage of inspirational North American wisdom literature, from Ralph Waldo Emerson to Maya Angelou. ‘Hope and fear cannot occupy the same space,’ Angelou announces. ‘Invite one to stay.’ Exhortatory, buoyant, on-topic, what could be more uplifting than such clear-eyed, courageous messages of triumph-in-togetherness in these terrifying times?' (Introduction)

1 Introduction to Astrid Lorange’s Labour and Other Poems Justin Clemens , 2020 single work essay
— Appears in: Labour and Other Poems 2020;
1 First Fruits of a Barron Field Justin Clemens , 2019 single work criticism
— Appears in: Critical Quarterly , April vol. 61 no. 1 2019; (p. 18-36)

'In Australian literature, Barron Field is at once marginal and foundational. His usual claim to fame is that in 1819 he published the first book of poetry in Australia, a collection entitled First Fruits of Australian Poetry and comprised of two poems, which he then republished with four further poems in 1823. Notably, the book was self‐published using the official government printer, and bears on its title page the declaration ‘For Private Distribution’.' (Introduction)

1 y separately published work icon Limericks, Philosophical and Literary Justin Clemens , Melbourne : Surpllus , 2019 18501820 2019 selected work poetry

'Brief, risible, finicky, the limerick is a form whose greatest successes never rise above the mildly embarrassing. Yet despite never having enjoyed unqualified approbation from critics or public, the form has its enthusiasts and eminent ­aficionados: there is no lack of literary luminaries who have lavished love on the limerick. This title continues this queer minor tradition, ­presenting seventy-seven limericks about writers and philo­sophers from St Thomas Aquinas to Simone Weil. Of all the grades of doggerel, the limerick is one of the lowest. Populist and participatory if not precisely popular, the limerick first becomes a hit in Victorian England with Edward Lear’s books of nonsense. It spreads at once across the English-speaking world like a highly contagious linguistic rash. Including a critical essay that delineates the limerick’s salient features, along with a dictionary that collects brief physiognomies of the subjects of the limericks, this book dares to descend into the maelstrom of ­mediocrity and to return, arms overflowing with mixed metaphors and mouldering microplastics.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

1 Barron Field’s Terra Nullius Operation Thomas H. Ford , Justin Clemens , 2019 single work criticism
— Appears in: Australian Humanities Review , November no. 65 2019;
'Barron Field, who is today a largely forgotten figure, was from 1817 to 1824 the highest judge in New South Wales. His place in literary history rests on his First Fruits of Australian Poetry of 1819, which, as the title announces, was the first book of poetry to be published in this country. But by most accounts Field was a mediocre judge and a worse poet. John McLaren writes of the legal career that ‘Field’s record as a judge could best be described as mercurial, a reflection of his conservative belief system, a commitment to the culture of English law, and an opportunistic streak in his character…. Field’s counsel was not invariably sound or in keeping with the Colonial Office’s understanding of the legal proprieties’ (144). As for his poetry, even the colonial anthologists were wary of Field’s inclusion, although Vivian Smith has more recently been generous enough to judge Field’s poem ‘The Kangaroo’ to be ‘an exuberant oddity’ (74). Field also appears in a number of historical studies of colonial science and culture, where he tends however to remain a minor and rather ambiguous figure (Bernard Smith; Carter).' (Introduction)
1 First Fruits of Barron Field Justin Clemens , 2018 single work biography
— Appears in: The Monthly , October no. 149 2018; (p. 68-71)

'2019 will see another Australian bicentenary, the 200th anniversary of the first book of poetry published in this country. You could be forgiven for knowing neither the book nor its author; you could probably also be forgiven for not finding the event all that worthy of memorialisation, let alone celebration. Aside from a few specialists in colonial literature and a handful of historically inclined local poets, who in contemporary Australia could possibly be interested in the (exceedingly) minor poetaster Barron Field — yes, his real name — and his First Fruits of Australian Poetry? Would Field's work be of more interest if it were crucial evidence in the establishment of terra nullius in this country?' (Publication summary)
 

1 My Coy Runt i "Vile thief, lop a fop - Conceded,", Justin Clemens , 2017 single work poetry
— Appears in: Australian Poetry Journal , vol. 7 no. 1 2017; (p. 98-99)
1 Let Us Wreak All the Extraordinary Scene : Organs! Justin Clemens , 2017 single work prose
— Appears in: TEXT Special Issue Website Series , October no. 46 2017;
1 The Idea Takes Place As Place Itself, Expanded and Revised Edition with a New Foreword by the Author i "“From where did topos theory come?” that is", Justin Clemens , 2017 single work poetry
— Appears in: Cordite Poetry Review , November vol. 83 no. 2017;
1 Noise and Voice : An Interview with Amanda Stewart Justin Clemens (interviewer), 2017 single work interview
— Appears in: Sydney Review of Books , October 2017;

'Amanda Stewart is a poet, author and composer/performer. As well as writing poetry, she is interested in expanding poetic notions to other forms and has worked extensively in new music, radio, film, theatre, dance, sound poetry and new media environments. Some of her poetry utilises more traditional literary devices while other works aim to make an intervention at the level of the materiality of language, itself, exploring a range of conceptual approaches that challenge how we see and hear language structures. She is currently working on a new book of poetry, collaborating on several new music and theatre projects and producing a solo LP.'  (Introduction)

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