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  • Author:agent John Kinsella http://www.poetrylibrary.edu.au/poets/kinsella-john
Issue Details: First known date: 2006... 2006 Fast, Loose Beginnings : A Memoir of Intoxications
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'Fast, Loose Beginnings is a racy anecdotal memoir of John Kinsella's meetings with the great and colourful men and women of poetry. Since his late teens, Kinsella has been rubbing shoulders and working with a host of acclaimed poets. The book opens with Kinsella on a bender in search of Dorothy Hewett, and goes on to tell the story of his friendships and massive fallings-out through the highs and lows of addiction.

'In this contentious account, Kinsella weaves his impressions of these figures personally, with a lively and incisive commentary on their place within the broader literary culture. Here, in good company, are intimate portraits of Dorothy Hewett, Les Murray, American literary critic Harold Bloom and French philosopher Jacques Derrida, as they have never been seen before. As a highly respected poet and critic, Kinsella brings clarity and biting irreverence to the writer's life, making this encounter with literature vividly alive.' (Publisher's blurb)

Notes

  • Dedication: To Tracy, as always...

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

Works about this Work

Memoir as Suicide Susan Bradley Smith , 2010 single work criticism
— Appears in: TEXT : The Journal of the Australian Association of Writing Programs , October vol. 14 no. 2 2010;
'Anecdotal by necessity, this essay through an act of confession considers the advantages and disadvantages of memoir as a genre for the contemporary writer who is also an academic. Employing the ruminative techniques of the lyric essay in order to question the reliance of confessional prose on anecdotal narrative, the prose style deliberately mingles genres in fragments that attempt both to stalk the subject - confessional ethics - and to free it from a narrative entrapment where content is supreme to textual expression. Considering also the notion of creative writing as therapy, and the vanity of the self-directed gaze, any resolutions are avoided as intimacies reveal the thorny negotiations of writing and revelation.' (Author's abstract)
Cross-Pollinations Susan Bradley Smith (interviewer), 2007-2008 single work interview
— Appears in: Meanjin , vol. 66-67 no. 4-1 2007-2008; (p. 45-51)
Memoirs Gerard Woodward , 2006 single work review
— Appears in: The Times Literary Supplement , 10 November no. 5406 2006; (p. 27)

— Review of Fast, Loose Beginnings : A Memoir of Intoxications John Kinsella , 2006 single work autobiography

'I’ve got the kind of mind that jumps around, makes leaps to places it shouldn’t, then twists back to the starting point again.” So warns John Kinsella, Australian poet, academic, critic and editor, at the beginning of this memoir. It is a sentence that might chill the heart of a reader setting out to tackle the prose of a poet, with its promise of confusion and entanglement, but in fact this book is refreshingly lucid, at times almost childishly so.' (Introduction)

Untitled Bill Tully , 2006 single work review
— Appears in: Voice : A Journal of Comment and Review , December no. 20 2006; (p. 42-44)

— Review of Fast, Loose Beginnings : A Memoir of Intoxications John Kinsella , 2006 single work autobiography
Untitled Chris Womersley , 2006 single work review
— Appears in: The Monthly , October no. 17 2006; (p. 65)

— Review of Fast, Loose Beginnings : A Memoir of Intoxications John Kinsella , 2006 single work autobiography
Untitled Andrew Wilkins , 2006 single work review
— Appears in: Bookseller + Publisher Magazine , August vol. 86 no. 2 2006; (p. 35)

— Review of Fast, Loose Beginnings : A Memoir of Intoxications John Kinsella , 2006 single work autobiography
Behind the Ruckus: A Poet Ponders His Life Geoff Page , 2006 single work review
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 19 August 2006; (p. 12)

— Review of Fast, Loose Beginnings : A Memoir of Intoxications John Kinsella , 2006 single work autobiography
Very Well Then, I Contradict Myself Jaya Savige , 2006 single work review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 19-20 August 2006; (p. 32-33)

— Review of Fast, Loose Beginnings : A Memoir of Intoxications John Kinsella , 2006 single work autobiography
Skim Sally Blakeney , 2006 single work review
— Appears in: The Bulletin , 29 August vol. 124 no. 6535 2006; (p. 68)

— Review of Fast, Loose Beginnings : A Memoir of Intoxications John Kinsella , 2006 single work autobiography ; Invisible Yet Enduring Lilacs Gerald Murnane , 2005 single work autobiography
A Recollection of Vices and Voices Lisa Gorton , 2006 single work review
— Appears in: The Age , 23 September 2006; (p. 22)

— Review of Fast, Loose Beginnings : A Memoir of Intoxications John Kinsella , 2006 single work autobiography
Hooked on Verse Angela Bennie , 2006 single work biography
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 5-6 August 2006; (p. 30-31)
War, Blood, Courts ... It's Poets at War Angela Bennie , 2006 single work column
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 8 August 2006; (p. 1, 6) The Age , 8 August 2006; (p. 5)
War Erupts in Poet Versus Poet Melissa Kent , 2006 single work column
— Appears in: The West Australian , 9 August 2006; (p. 5)
Poets Feud Over Expose on Youthful Excess Kathy Marks , 2006 single work column
— Appears in: The Independent , 9 August 2006; (p. 24)
Magistrate Agreed Emails Were Serious, Says Poet Under Siege Angela Bennie , 2006 single work column
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 9 August 2006; (p. 5)
Bennie continues her coverage of the furore surrounding the publication of John Kinsella's Fast, Loose Beginnings : A Memoir of Intoxications. (For more in depth coverage see 'War, Blood, Courts ... It's Poets at War'.
Last amended 17 Apr 2018 09:45:33
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