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David McCooey

David McCooey reviews three poets at the height of their powers

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November 2018, no. 406
David McCooey reviews 'Towards Light & Other Poems' by Sarah Day, 'Anywhy' by Jennifer Harrison, and 'Warlines' by Jordie Albiston

Sarah Day’s début collection, A Hunger to Be Less Serious (1987), married lightness of touch with depth of insight. In Towards Light & Other Poems (Puncher & Wattmann, $25 pb, 108 pp, 9781925780024), Day continues this project in poems concerned with light, a thing presented as both ...

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State Editor's Introduction by David McCooey

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States of Poetry Victoria - Series Two

In an age when the news is relentlessly bad, it is tempting to think that we can turn to poetry as either a flight from the pathological politics of our time, or a higher commentary on it. As the poets in this year’s Victorian States of Poetry Anthology show, poetry’s relationship with the news of the day is more complex than that.

Who Reads Poetry: 50 views from Poetry Magazine edited by Fred Sasaki and Don Share

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May 2018, no. 401
David McCooey reviews 'Who Reads Poetry: 50 views from Poetry Magazine' edited by Fred Sasaki and Don Share

So, who reads poetry? American military cadets, that’s who. And medical specialists. Also, songwriters, journalists, and philosophers. And don’t forget (ex-) poets, priests, and politicians (to quote Sting). But let’s get back to those military cadets. What does poetry do for them? Who Reads Poetry gives us a number of ...

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Renga: 100 poems by John Kinsella and Paul Kane

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March 2018, no. 399
David McCooey reviews 'Renga: 100 poems' by John Kinsella and Paul Kane

Poets aren’t generally known for being great collaborators. Wordsworth and Coleridge’s 'Lyrical Ballads' (1798) is a rare example of a co-authored canonical work of poetry. 'Renga: 100 poems', by John Kinsella and Paul Kane, has some similarities to 'Lyrical Ballads'. Like those of its ...

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David Malouf and the Poetic: His earlier writings by Yvonne Smith

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January–February 2018, no. 398
David McCooey reviews 'David Malouf and the Poetic: His earlier writings' by Yvonne Smith

Plenty of novelists begin life as poets. Few, though, have managed to maintain their status as poet–novelists quite so impressively as David Malouf. But even Malouf, in his ‘middle period’, more or less dropped poetry for his ‘big’ novels ...

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2017 Books of the Year

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December 2017, no. 397

To celebrate the best books of 2017 Australian Book Review invited nearly forty contributors to nominate their favourite titles. Contributors include Michelle de Kretser, Susan Wyndham, James Ley, Geordie Williamson, Jane Sullivan, Tom Griffiths, Mark Edele, and Brenda Niall.

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The Pleasures of Leisure by Robert Dessaix

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May 2017, no. 391
David McCooey reviews 'The Pleasures of Leisure' by Robert Dessaix

The Last Resort (1986), a photobook by Martin Parr, includes a photograph of a woman sunbaking in the English seaside resort of New Brighton. The woman is lying, facedown and topless, on a concrete ramp, directly in front of the caterpillar tracks of a gigantic excavator ...

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Graphology Poems 1995–2015, vols I-III by John Kinsella

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March 2017, no. 389
David McCooey reviews 'Graphology Poems 1995–2015, Vols I-III' by John Kinsella

John Kinsella, who lives mostly in Australia, is a transnational literary powerhouse. Poet, fiction writer, playwright, librettist, critic, academic, collaborator, editor, publisher, activist; his activities and accomplishments are manifold. He is best known as a poet, and the publication of Graphology Poems 1995–2015 – a mammoth (and ongoing) discontin ...

Our Lady of the Fence Post by J.H. Crone

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January–February 2017, no. 388
Peter Kenneally reviews 'Our Lady of the Fence Post' J.H. Crone, 'Border Security' by Bruce Dawe, 'Melbourne Journal' by Alan Loney, and 'Star Struck' by David McCooey

A book called Our Lady of the Fence Post (UWA Publishing, $22.99 pb, 105 pp, 9781742589121) by a poet called J.H. Crone is an irresistible proposition, simply as a notion ...

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Poem of the Week - David McCooey reads 'Fleeting: Sylvia Plath at 80'

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Poem of the Week

In this episode of 'Poem of the Week' David McCooey reads 'Fleeting: Sylvia Plath at 80'. ABR Editor, Peter Rose, introduces David who then reads and discusses his poem.

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