For the Wake and the Skeleton Dance single work   poetry   "the dreamtime Dostoyevskys murmur of a recession in the spirit world"
Issue Details: First known date: 2000... 2000 For the Wake and the Skeleton Dance
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All Publication Details

  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Of Muse, Meandering and Midnight Samuel Wagan Watson , St Lucia : University of Queensland Press , 2000 Z668862 2000 selected work poetry (taught in 2 units) 'In a voice youthful, passionate and questioning, these poems reflect on growing up and on letting go; on urban dwellers in love and lust; and on the artist and his Murri community. The politics are unguarded and often amusing, and the language is playful, rhythmic and evocative. Ghosted by ancestors and muses, Watson's cityscape interweaves past and present.' (Source: Publisher's blurb) St Lucia : University of Queensland Press , 2000 pg. 50-51
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon New Music : An Anthology of Contemporary Australian Poetry John Leonard (editor), Wollongong : Five Islands Press , 2001 Z823311 2001 anthology poetry (taught in 4 units) Wollongong : Five Islands Press , 2001 pg. 8
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Smoke Encrypted Whispers Samuel Wagan Watson , St Lucia : University of Queensland Press , 2004 Z1123977 2004 selected work poetry (taught in 5 units)

    'These poems pulse with the language and images of a mangrove-lined river city, the beckoning highway, the just-glimpsed muse, the tug of childhood and restless ancestors. For the first time Samuel Wagan Watson's poetry has been collected into this stunning volume, which includes a final section of all new work.' (Source: UQP website: www.uqp.uq.edu.au)

    St Lucia : University of Queensland Press , 2004
    pg. 50-51
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Macquarie PEN Anthology of Aboriginal Literature Anita Heiss (editor), Peter Minter (editor), Nicholas Jose (editor), Crows Nest : Allen and Unwin , 2008 Z1483175 2008 anthology poetry drama prose correspondence criticism extract (taught in 19 units)

    'An authoritative survey of Australian Aboriginal writing over two centuries, across a wide range of fiction and non-fiction genres. Including some of the most distinctive writing produced in Australia, it offers rich insights into Aboriginal culture and experience...

    'The anthology includes journalism, petitions and political letters from both the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, as well as major works that reflect the blossoming of Aboriginal poetry, prose and drama from the mid-twentieth century onwards. Literature has been used as a powerful political tool by Aboriginal people in a political system which renders them largely voiceless. These works chronicle the ongoing suffering of dispossession, but also the resilience of Aboriginal people across the country, and the hope and joy in their lives.' (Publisher's blurb)

    Crows Nest : Allen and Unwin , 2008
    pg. 217-218
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Macquarie PEN Anthology of Australian Literature Nicholas Jose (editor), Kerryn Goldsworthy (editor), Anita Heiss (editor), David McCooey (editor), Peter Minter (editor), Nicole Moore (editor), Elizabeth Webby (editor), Crows Nest : Allen and Unwin , 2009 Z1590615 2009 anthology correspondence diary drama essay extract poetry prose short story (taught in 23 units)

    'Some of the best, most significant writing produced in Australia over more than two centuries is gathered in this landmark anthology. Covering all genres - from fiction, poetry and drama to diaries, letters, essays and speeches - the anthology maps the development of one of the great literatures in English in all its energy and variety.

    'The writing reflects the diverse experiences of Australians in their encounter with their extraordinary environment and with themselves. This is literature of struggle, conflict and creative survival. It is literature of lives lived at the extremes, of frontiers between cultures, of new dimensions of experience, where imagination expands.

    'This rich, informative and entertaining collection charts the formation of an Australian voice that draws inventively on Indigenous words, migrant speech and slang, with a cheeky, subversive humour always to the fore. For the first time, Aboriginal writings are interleaved with other English-language writings throughout - from Bennelong's 1796 letter to the contemporary flowering of Indigenous fiction and poetry - setting up an exchange that reveals Australian history in stark new ways.

    'From vivid settler accounts to haunting gothic tales, from raw protest to feisty urban satire and playful literary experiment, from passionate love poetry to moving memoir, the Macquarie PEN Anthology of Australian Literature reflects the creative eloquence of a society.

    'Chosen by a team of expert editors, who have provided illuminating essays about their selections, and with more than 500 works from over 300 authors, it is an authoritative survey and a rich world of reading to be enjoyed.' (Publisher's blurb)

    Allen and Unwin have a YouTube channel with a number of useful videos on the Anthology.

    Crows Nest : Allen and Unwin , 2009
    pg. 1396-1397
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon The Puncher & Wattmann Anthology of Australian Poetry John Leonard (editor), Glebe : Puncher and Wattmann , 2009 Z1674214 2009 anthology poetry (taught in 16 units) Glebe : Puncher and Wattmann , 2009 pg. 9
Alternative title: Para el velatorio y el baile del esqueleto
First line of verse: "the dreamtime Dostoyevskys murmur of a recession in the spirit world=El tiempo de sueño de Dostoyevsky susurro de una recesión en el mundo de los espiritus"
Language: Spanish , English
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Earth Mirror Espejo de Tierra O'Malley : Chilean Embassy, Australia , 2008 Z1520701 2008 anthology poetry

    'The hardcover anthology Espejo de Tierra / Earth Mirror: An Anthology of Chilean Mapuche and Australian Aboriginal Poetry, showcases the work of five Mapuche and five Australia Indigenous poets in both English and Spanish translation, and the works of Chilean and Australian Indigenous visual artists.

    With introductions by renowned Chilean poet Gonzalo Rojas and University of Sydney scholar and poet Peter Minter, this innovative publication highlights the similarities and links between two ancient and revered cultures.' Andrew Potter

    O'Malley : Chilean Embassy, Australia , 2008
    pg. 188-191
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