Ruby Street

OK, I can now update details of my next book launch: Breaking The Days will be launched in Melbourne by Alison Croggon at The Alderman, 134 Lygon St, Brunswick East, on Saturday 21st November, 2.30-4.30pm. Welcome, one and all! You might be interested to read some of my thoughts on putting the book together a few posts back on the blog. I hope to have a cover pic available soon.  

It's a busy November for me, as it turns out. As well as marking and administrivia stress outs, I'm dancing poetry around Australia, even in the current home town. First up, because it's confirmed, and it's, urrm, first up, I'll be reading in Adelaide at the first Lee Marvin reading for November alongside David Mortimer, Heather Taylor Johnson and the maestro, Ken Bolton himself. So, that's Tuesday 3rd, November at Dark Horsey, the usual 7.30pm for 8pm. The full Lee Marvin November program , a pretty tasty one for the beginning of the summer season, is as follows: November 3rd  Jill Jones  •  Heather Taylor Johnson  •  Ken Bolton  •  David Mortimer November 10th   Cath Kenneally  •  Naomi Horridge   •  Gretta Mitchell  •  Shannon Burns November 17th   Jelena Dinic   •  Mike Ladd  •  Alison Flett  •  Peter Goldsworthy November 24th   Francesca da Rimini...

The list of contributors to The Best Australia Poems 2015 has been announced. I'm there (yay), amongst a big crowd. I'd prefer to call it a Big Crowd of Australian Poems, or something, rather than 'the best', because it's never gonna be that, because it can't. Still, that's an argument that's been rehashed a number of times. 'Best' is marketing speak, as we all know. There's a few names on the list that I don't know and some poets whose work I'm not yet well-acquainted with. That's all to the good. There's six (only!) South Australian poets - Steve Evans, Thom Sullivan , Geoff Goodfellow, Rachael Mead , Jude Aquilina, Jill Jones - unless one of the unknown-to-me folks is also living here. Slightly surprising, given I'm aware of good stuff published in the last year by other SA poets, or at least written, going on what I heard at the Lee Marvin readings I was in town for during 2014-15. I mean pretty damn good. But edi...

I decided to take a break, a continuing one so far it seems, from Facebook, a few months ago. I miss the exchange at times but, in the end, it wasn't good for my health. That is a long story and not worth going into further. I've gone back to this blog, fitfully it may seem, but possibly fairly regularly. I did try tumblr, by the way, but didn't seem to get into the swing of it. Twitter is an unknown and untried world and remains so, for now. The advantage of a blog over Facebook and other insulated social media platforms is that it doesn't require a subscription to read it, and the posts are much easier to track and recover/re-read. This was a frustration I had with Facebook, though probably not the primary reason I left. Indeed, I have darted back (reactivated is the technical term, I believe) once or twice for a brief five minute foray, simply to check on something posted on x date and/or about y bit of business. No-one noticed. In the heyday of blogging, in the ...

The latest issue of Mascara Literary Review has just been published, with the theme of Between Black and White. I have a small poem therein, Bright Yellow Black . There are many other good things to read as well, including a terrific short fiction by my friend and fellow Adelaidean writer, Shannon Burns.

I am currently involved in the various tasks in getting a book ready for print and release . The book, at this moment, is called Breaking the Days , and was a joint winner of the Whitmore Press Manuscript Prize last year . The other winner, Tracy Ryan, has already published her volume in late July. But back to this process. Because they are tasks, things that you do to make something. My initial task was to complete the manuscript after having the initial 150 lines (or so) being chosen last year. And thanks to Whitmore Press folks for offering this ongoing opportunity to poets, and, of course, for picking my manuscript last year. I did, in fact, have a longer manuscript idea I was working from, so I knew the field of poems I would be playing with. Mostly, though not entirely, they were a series of writings I had done during 2014, and to narrow it down, mostly during the first seven or eight months of that year. I have since included a few newer 2015 poems and reworked one or two ...

There's a new poem from me at Cordite , just this week, called Bearing False Witness . It's part of their latest feature issue called Umami , edited by Luke Davies. My poem comes from an ongoing series of prose poems I've been writing on-and-off for many years. Occasionally one of them gets published. I have thought, from time-to-time, of putting them out in a small book, but I suspect that won't happen. So, catch 'em if you can. Speaking of Cordite , there's another recent poem of mine there as well, called In My Shifts , published as part of their (also) current TransTasman issue, edited by Bonny Cassidy. My irregular blogging past meant I hadn't noted it here until now, as I haven't noted a lot of things here over the last couple of years.