Hidden Author
WHAT DREW YOU TO WRITING?
The American poet Howard Nemerov described poetry writing as a spiritual exercise 'having for its chief object the discovery or invention of one's character'. I'm sure that at heart this is what my writing is about.
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CALIBRE PRIZE
Michael Winkler is the winner of the 2016 Calibre Prize for an Outstanding Essay. The judges – Sophie Cunningham (winner of the 2015 Calibre Prize) and Peter Rose – chose Mr Winkler's essay 'The Great Red Whale' from a field of almost 200 entries submitted from thirteen different countries. Michael Winkler receives $5,000; his essay appears in this issue, beginning on page 31.
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Even before I'd finished talking, hands shot up from the grey heads in the audience. 'I'm very concerned,' said the jowly chap with the sailor's suntan, 'that advances being made in drugs mean that most cancer patients will soon be kept alive indefinitely.' That's a problem? People who used to suffer and die will be able to live longer, quality lives. You don't hear this said about the advances in ... (read more)
In this episode of Australian Book Review's States of Poetry podcast, Fiona Wright reads her poem 'Smith's Lake' which features in the 2016 New South Wales anthology.
Smith's Lake
The grass grows longer on the easeway.
A pelican swipes the sky towards the seascape we can't yet see,its webby legs outstretched: ... (read more)
In this episode of Australian Book Review's States of Poetry podcast, Fiona Wright reads her poem 'Set Piece' which features in the 2016 New South Wales anthology.
Set Piece
Strange, that there are sequences we live as cinema, if I lookedover my shoulderI might recognise the front wall ... (read more)
In this episode of Australian Book Review's States of Poetry podcast, Fiona Wright reads her poem 'Potts Point' which features in the 2016 New South Wales anthology.
Potts Point
for Eileen
The light's olderin these sandstone suburbs,jam-thick.
A clipped-haired man held a dog leashsaying one of us is single,and even the leaveshad hunched their shouldersin the gutters.
A waiter, golde ... (read more)
In this episode of Australian Book Review's States of Poetry podcast, Fiona Wright reads her poem 'Crisis Poem' which features in the 2016 New South Wales anthology.
Crisis Poem
for Ian
And suddenly:the menare holding beersand standing roundthe trampoline,and not the barbecue;turning over toddlers,instead of steaks.The womenmake the salads.
Fiona Wright
'Crisis Poem' appears ... (read more)
In this episode of Australian Book Review's States of Poetry podcast, Fiona Wright reads her poem 'After Mutability' which features in the 2016 New South Wales anthology.
After Mutability
Perhaps the best cells are the ones we can't kill off,a persistence of the fittest, although mutation'salways painful. It's two thousand and fourteen,and I know no-one who has beenuninjured. It thinks ... (read more)
In this episode of Australian Book Review's States of Poetry podcast, Amy Brown reads her poem 'Snake' which features in the 2016 Victorian anthology.
Snake
We are following a track that loopsaround a lake impaled with trees,a pinned-down habitat for platypuses
I would like to see, so try to walksilently until a shadow across the sun-dried turf in front of me blushes
curls and slides ... (read more)