Cassandra Atherton

Cassandra Atherton is a poet and scholar. She is Professor of Writing and Literature at Deakin University. She was a Harvard Visiting Fellow in English and a Visiting Scholar in Comparative Culture at Sophia University, Tokyo. She is writing a book of prose poetry on the atomic bomb with funding from an Australia Council grant.

Cassandra Atherton reviews 'The Conversation' by David Brooks

November 2012, no. 346 • 26 October 2012

The epigraph from Plato’s Phaedrus cleverly introduces the Socratic dialogue on which David Brooks’s new novel turns. This makes for a brilliant foray into the contradictions at the heart of the truths that both characters are seeking in The Conversation. This question-and-answer exchange is presented as a kind of Scheherazadian dégustation of narratives, where the novel endures for as long a ... (read more)

Cassandra Atherton reviews 'Ormond Papers Volume XXVIII, 2011' edited by Pera Wells

May 2012, no. 341 • 24 April 2012

Ormond Papers showcases the academic work of Ormond undergraduates and the wider college community. This volume loosely explores issues of identity and space, opening with the Ormond-centric ‘Our Academic Home’, on the refurbishment of the Academic Centre. Robert Leach’s interview with Colin Barnes, the gardener, is a highlight, despite some ill-conceived questions (‘You’ve been here a w ... (read more)

Cassandra Atherton reviews 'The Keeper of Fish' by Alan Fish (edited by Philip Salom) and 'Keeping Carter' by M.A. Carter (edited by Philip Salom)

May 2012, no. 341 • 20 April 2012

In his Keepers trilogy, Philip Salom is an Eliotian Fisher King, exploring the fissuring of identity in a triple play of plurality. The first book, Keepers (2010), was written by Salom, but authorship of The Keeper of Fish and Keeping Carter is attributed to Alan Fish and M.A. Carter,respectively. In his role as editor for these two poets, Salom becomes their gatekeeper or, as he states, their ‘ ... (read more)