Cirrus@Austlit

'From Volyn To Kherson, tells the stories of hardship and suffering and bewilderment experienced by the people of Ukraine in the early weeks of the 2022 Russian invasion and war.

'The collection draws on news reports and social media postings during the most un-curated war the world has ever witnessed, interpreting and translating the raw emotion of this wartime experience.

'There is no part of Ukraine that has been left untouched by this war, and no part of the poet left untouched by these stories of the Ukraine.' (Publication summary)

(Publication summary)

'The Beechworth Bakery Bears are having lots of fun.

'They are rowing in regattas and taking tea in the pie warmer.

'They are riding on bobsleds and slurping coffee.

'They are keeping watch over the bakery and making sure that everyone has cake to eat.

'They are waiting, and hoping, that someone might take them home, where perhaps scones will be made!

'They are ready to tell you all their stories . . .'(Publication summary)

'The Beechworth Bakery Bears are still just as friendly and eager to please as ever.

'But, where is Frank-Bear?

'He does not come in to see them as often as before and they miss him.

'They would love to tell you about their lives now, and how they wait for their best friend Frank-Bear to visit.

'Step back into the bakery and find out what is happening in the world of The Beechworth Bakery Bears.' (Publication summary)

'What are the Beechworth Bakery Bears up to this time? Has Tom sold out of Bee Stings?

'Take The Beechworth Bakery Bears (too) home to read, and find out!'(Publication summary)

'The Beechworth Bakery Bears are having lots of fun.

'They are rowing in regattas and taking tea in the pie warmer.

'They are riding on bobsleds and slurping coffee.

'They are keeping watch over the bakery and making sure that everyone has cake to eat.

'They are waiting, and hoping, that someone might take them home, where perhaps scones will be made!

'They are ready to tell you all their stories . . .'(Publication summary)

'Pebbles to Poems, from the new voice in contemporary poetry

'Frank Prem is the new voice in contemporary poetry, and in Pebbles to Poems, he presents excerpts from six published collections that deliver Memoir, Catastrophe, Psychiatry and Love stories.'

'Drawing on the phrasing of Walt Whitman’s great late 19th century poem Leaves of Grass (above) Frank Prem has produced a collection of expansive and outward looking love poetry written, as always, in the unique style that allows every reader to relate.

'Prem's interpretations breathe new life into contemporary exploration of themes of love in poetry, and utilise Whitman’s original phrases to inspire a contemplation of the self in the context of landscape and the wider world'.

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Drawing on the phrasing of T.S. Eliot’s amazing early 20th century poem The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock (above) Frank Prem has produced a collection of companionable and introspective love poetry written, as always, in the unique style that allows every reader to relate.

'Prem's interpretations breathe new life into contemporary exploration of themes of love in poetry, and utilise Eliot’s original phrases to inspire a contemplation of the self in the context of landscape and the wider world'.

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Drawing on the phrasing of the early 20th Century Amy Lowell poem Madonna of the Evening Flowers (above) Frank Prem has produced a collection of personal and interpersonal love poems written, as always, in the unique style that allows every reader to relate.

'Prem's interpretations breathe new life into contemporary love poetry and utilise Lowell's original phrases to inspire a tender immediacy and warmth of response.

'Herja, Devastation is a tale of myth and mortality, wielder and implement, love and destiny.

'Free-verse poetry combines with short prose in the style of an Eddic tale modernised.

* * *

'The legend of Valkyrie breathes, as Herja, Devastation, once wronged, aims her mortal agent at her enemies.

'Her man bears this tale of vengeance in service to a higher, eminently more noble being. He is her assassin and tool, and she is his destiny and dignity.

'In the dirty business of death on demand, a purity of purpose lights the path as he seeks questions, provides answers and justice on her word.

'This blending of literary forms creates a unique nouveau noir style for the 21st Century. Do you dare to tread the dark side?'

(Source: publisher's blurb)

'Devil In The Wind is an account of catastrophic fire and its immediate aftermath.

'In this 21st century, the whole world seems to be on fire. America burns. Europe burns. Greece is reeling after its own tragedy of fire.

'And Australia burns, as it has always done, but now so much more fiercely.

'In February 2009, wildfires burnt through entire communities, taking 173 lives and injuring hundreds, while destroying thousands of houses and other buildings. Up to 400 fires destroyed 450,000 hectares of forest, native fauna and habitat, livestock and farmland.

'In the aftermath of the fires, the voices of people who had lived through the experience -- victims, rescuers, and observers -- were spoken and were heard.

'Devil In The Wind is Frank Prem's poetic anthology of the personal, and very human, accounts of those who themselves experienced and survived Black Saturday. Poetry writing that interacts directly with readers emotions.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'The New Asylum is the third volume in a series of free-verse poetry anthologies and personal memoirs from Australian author Frank Prem (Small Town Kid, Devil In The Wind).

'This collection is an expose of life in the public psychiatric system, spanning five decades and describing sometimes graphically, sometimes ironically, often poignantly, and always honestly, a search for meaning in extraordinary and often incomprehensible circumstances.

'The journey begins with childhood experiences of watching immigrant parents earn their living in the Mayday Hills Mental Asylum... progresses through the oddities and antics of psychiatric nurse training in the 1970s... on to the high-pressure coalface of managing regional centres facing an inundation of modern urban challenges... and finally, settles into the generally calmer waters of a small town residential facility.

'Join Frank Prem on his New Asylum journey, and discover what it means to become that particular 'mental health creature' that is a psychiatric nurse.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Small Town Kid is a poetry anthology that illuminates the experience of regional life as a child, in an insular town during the late 1960s to the mid-1970s, remote from the more worldly places where life really happens, in a time before the internet and the online existence of social media.

'It is a time when a small town boy can walk a mile to school and back every day, and hunt rabbits with his dog in the hours of freedom before sundown. He can hoard crackers for bonfire night and blow up the deputy school master's mailbox in an act of joyous rebellion.

'It is a time when a small town teenager will ride fourteen miles on a bicycle for his first experience of girls, and of love. A time when migrating from a foreign country to a small town means his family will always feel that they are strangers, while visitors to the town are treated like an invading host.

'It is also the remembrance of tragedy for inexperienced friends driving on narrow country roads.

'This collection of poems and stories shares the type of childhood that has mostly disappeared in contemporary times. Come and revisit it here, in the pages of a Small Town Kid.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.