Statement by Michael Brennan: 'I started editing poetry with Avernus, which was an overzealous attempt in my third-year of undergraduate studies to get out of writing an essay on the Bulletin. In my Australian Studies course, we had looked at the little magazines of the 1970s and I thought it would be more interesting to muck about with something similar ... Professor Elizabeth Webby let me have a go ... The first two issues of Avernus were hideous at least as far as the covers. With the third and final Avernus, I started working with an artist friend Kay Orchison, and it was with the idea of doing more work together that Vagabond Press (q.v.) got off the ground.
Source: Michael Brennan, 'A Short History of Vagabond Press and Poetry International Australia', Cordite no. 22 (2006)
