Cirrus@Austlit

'Do not be afraid to think.

'Test form, renew form, or defy it.

'Know there is a new permission to speak, and for more voices.

'Not to censure, censor our inheritances—in which there is still the cherishable, the followable—but to question, yes, that. To make that effort, with caring, love, and as needed, fierceness.

'To write, read the self, which can also be multiple, as are our inheritances, and also within if wished for, community.

'When I first devised the idea of this New Series two years ago, it was intended to be celebratory, motivated by the current flourishing which is occurring in poetry and poetry publication in Australia. In it, another poet/critic or poetry community associate is ‘allied’ with a new or recent Australian poetry collection, be that an individual volume, or an anthology, or another platform. Some books go back a little (there is one from 2017), but most are of the past 12-24 months; the impetus was to make tribute to a splendid range of contemporary Australian poetry publishing.' (Jacinta Le Plastrier, Introduction)

‘Australian Poetry Journal’, Volume 8.2 – ‘spoken’, features new works by more than 60 Australian poets, with poetry guest-edited by prominent spoken-word poets and curators, Andrew Galan and David Stavanger. They have curated 42 poems, selected with a focus on producing the first in-print journal of Australian spoken word; it also includes one suite by American poet, Adam Day. This section includes a poem by the late, highly esteemed Candy Royalle. Following the ‘spoken’ selection is a separate section of 19 poems, which are all new works commissioned by Australian Poetry and presented across three of its 2018 festival events – at Sydney Writers’ Festival, Melbourne Writers Festival, and Queensland Poetry Festival. Edited by Toby Fitch, this Big Bent series is an exploration of gender and language queering. In a new publication development for AP, both sections of poems are accompanied by sound-recordings. In the case of the ‘spoken’ section, 15 poets have been recorded, along with a pre-existing recording of Candy performing her poem. In the case of the Big Bent section, the seven poets who read at MWF have been recorded.' (Introduction)

'Welcome to Australian Poetry Journal 7.2 – ‘work’, published with the support of the Australia Council for the Arts. Guest-editors Benjamin Laird and Cassandra Atherton have written a fascinating introduction on the provocation of the theme, this single word – work! – and the multiplicity of poetic responses to it: “We are reminded in putting this volume together that the intersection between ‘work’ and ‘poetry’ is, itself, a work in progress, and one that continues to build momentum.”' (Jacinta Le Plastrier : Online introduction)

'Welcome to Australian Poetry Journal 7.1, part of the new suite of poetry publications by Australian Poetry. This year’s Australian Poetry Anthology (guest eds., Lisa Gorton and Toby Fitch), published in March, was the first in this series. The designer is Stuart Geddes, with the vision of a physical elegance and beauty to reflect the calibre of the modern, contemporary, various poetry contained within: photographic art features on covers. Another trope is the commissioning of poetry guest editors for each volume of APJ. This allows the Journal to flex issue to issue, and to curate a broad while meritorious range of poetic voice. The poetry selections for 7.1, themed to ‘skin’, have been guest-edited collaboratively by Ali Cobby Eckermann and Ellen van Neerven, two of the country’s leading Aboriginal poets and editors. Their choice, selecting from the high level of open submissions by both Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (ATSI) poets, and poets who are not, was to divide their poems into two distinct sections: SKIN I POEMS, which opens the poetry here, are poems by poets who identify as ATSI; SKIN II POEMS are poems by non-ATSI poets, while still reflecting a cultural breadth. Some of the poems were commissioned by the editors from new Aboriginal poets located in workshops, some in far-flung territory. The Journal closes with another new feature for APJ: an extensive suite of poems, commissioned specifically by Australian Poetry, as presented across our annual major capital city literary festival partnerships. Both van Neerven and Eckermann, independently, were presented in this series, edited by the program director of our Australian Poets Festival 2016–2017, Toby Fitch. Thank-you to the essential support of our main funders: Australia Council for the Arts, Creative Victoria and Copyright Agency Cultural Fund.' (Publisher Note)

'For this issue of the Journal, my last as editor, I turn some focus on Tasmanian poetry. This follows the commissioning of an essay by Chris Ringrose on an outstanding Tasmanian publisher. I've foregrounded poems received from Tasmanian poets, and I gained permission by Tasmanian artist Julia Castiglioni Bradshaw for use of an image from one of her paintings for our cover. I could have included more Tasmanian poets, but a good three-quarters of the poetry content of the Journal has its origins elsewhere.' (Foreword : Introduction)