Cirrus@Austlit

'This evocative poetry collection is cleverly interspersed with prose poems that help set the scene for the poems. The collection follows a young poet through his daily life, and the poem s subtitle of a Twenty-Twenty Vision is an apt description of the two sides of story we see both the creative, poetic side and the prose poetry fact side. The publication of this title was supported by a grant from the Australia Council. This collection will appeal to lovers of poetry who enjoy seeing the everyday life of a young poet described through both intriguing verse and prose poetry. Essential for libraries with holdings in contemporary poetry.'(Publication summary)

'Secret Writing takes the reader on a journey through two lives, brought together by the secret writing in Albert Namatjira s paintings. Luis and Pearl are very different, and yet a chance meeting at a hospital on the Costa del Sol ignites a quest for both of them. Luis decides to journey to Central Australia so that he can decipher and understand the secret writing he believes is in Namatjira s paintings. When his journal is sent to Pearl, it arouses a curiosity in her, so that she too travels to Central Australia, retracing Luis footsteps. All is not as it seems however, as the brother and sister Luis was staying with, Sweepa and Francine, have somehow been transformed into the brother/sister duo Errol and Helen, who take Pearl in. Both sets of brother and sister appeal to different sides of the two different travellers and in time help them to explore and understand the country, as well as find answers to the multitude of life s questions that arise during their exploration of Central Australia. General readers as well as readers and enthusiasts of quest narratives, Aboriginal culture and the relation of art to landscape will find this an engaging novel. Important for libraries with collections of Australian literature that explore distinctly Australian themes and cultural elements.' (Publication summary)

'Resonant and delicate, Fresh News from the Arctic offers a finely wrought sensibility which elevates the subtle topography of life’s quiet events.

'This is a collection that investigates the human experience, parting the veil of the mundane to reveal passion, beauty, myth and mystery.

'At once atmospheric, with a surreal blend of emotion and memory, Fresh News from the Arctic is a fluid and ever-shifting landscape of possibilities. These poems are restless and inquisitive. They echo a desire to forge a voice that is as curious as it is distinctive.' (Publication summary)

“These are poems that go beyond the limits of words. By wrestling with the poems in 3rd I, by engaging with them, the world is more intensely lived. This guy is offering us everything. This is heroic poetry.” (John Marsden)

'Winner, Best First Book, IP Picks 2006. The Accidental Cage explores the perceptual and emotional experience of entrapment in its many forms. Exile, asylum, desire, love and motherhood all enter the speaker s imagination, often transformed by the force of resistance. The poems are nuanced, balancing a dramatic tension between the beauty of the metaphor and the impact of the meaning. The collection compiles longer meditations with shorter lyrical and imagistic poetry. This is an absorbing collection that weds classical metaphor and lyricism with contemporary voices and themes, while exploring a range of form. Essential for libraries and schools to widen their poetry collections.' (Publication summary)