It may seem strange to begin a review of Paul Carter’s extraordinary poetry collection by quoting the words of another writer, but these lines of Boris Pasternak’s – taken from his essay in The Poet’s Work (1989), a collection of writings by twentieth-century poets on their art – seem particularly pertinent:
By its inborn faculty of hearing, poetry seeks out the melody of nature amid ... (read more)
Jennifer Harrison
Jennifer Harrison has written eight books of poetry, most recently Anywhy (Black Pepper, 2018). Two new collections, Sideshow History and Finals, are forthcoming in 2025. She is Chair of the World Psychiatry Association’s Section for Art and Psychiatry and won the 2023 Troubadour International Poetry Prize.
Radical histories often balance political ideas and actions on a see-saw of progressive liberal ideology on the one hand, and a thumbs-down rejection of the ‘old guard’ on the other – a challenge to perceived obsolete, lazy, or contaminated ways of seeing, doing, or being. When I encountered the word ‘radical’ in the title of Outcrop, its rich political history of associations hovered ab ... (read more)