Australian poet & editor | Author of CARTE BLANCHE
Many thanks to Jake Goetz, Reviews Editor for Plumwood Mountain, for the opportunity to review Ed Wright’s latest book of poems, Gas Deities (Puncher & Wattmann, 2020). Click here for the REVIEW.
It’s 10 years this week since the culmination of a project Aidan Coleman and I ran in 2012, in which we invited South Australian poets to write about the renowned stained glass in St. Bart’s Church, Norwood, one of Adelaide’s oldest churches. Many of South Australia’s – and Australia’s – finest poets took up the challenge, 30 of them in all. The poems were showcased at a poetry reading at St. Bart’s in early November of that year, at which the poets read alongside the windows. A selection of the poems was anthologised in Light & Glorie (Pantaenus Press, 2012). The poems ranged from devotional to skeptical, from detailed to digressive, from the personal and aesthetic, to the historical. In the 10 years since, the newspaper articles about the project and two of the radio interviews have disappeared from their respective websites. But, happily, the Light & Glorie anthology is still available from Amazon, ABC Radio National’s hour-long podcast about the project is still online, and so are Robert Rath’s excellent photos of the poetry reading. Links below.
My poem ‘Dance of the Last Rhino’ has been published in Issue 2 of The Saltbush Review, an important new journal which focuses on connecting the South Australian literary community with readers and writing spaces across the world. Many thanks to Lyn, Gemma, Melanie, Clare, and Theodora of the editorial team.
Many thanks to Matthew Bulfer who has reviewed Carte Blanche for Westerly. Click here for the REVIEW.
Many thanks to Martin Duwell who has reviewed Carte Blanche, along with Ella Jeffery’s Dead Bolt, at Australian Poetry Review. Click here for the REVIEW.
Many thanks to Anne Elvey, Managing Editor of Plumwood Mountain, for the opportunity to review two of John Kinsella’s recent books: Hollow Earth (Transit Lounge, 2019), his first science fiction novel, and Open Door (UWAP, 2018), the final book of poems in his Jam Tree Gully trilogy. Click here for the REVIEW of Hollow Earth. Click here for the REVIEW of Open Door.
Many thanks to Geoff Page who has reviewed Carte Blanche for The Canberra Times. Click here for the REVIEW.
I’m delighted to feature in Australian Book Review’s ‘More Poetry for Troubled Times’ podcast. The podcast includes readings of poems by the likes of WB Yeats, Henry Lawson, Kenneth Slessor, Gwen Harwood, Bruce Dawe, Eavan Boland, Charles Simic, Czesław Miłosz, Denise Levertov, Emily Dickinson, and my selection, AR Ammons. The podcast is available via iTunes, Google and Spotify.
In the April edition of ABR (Australian Book Review), David McCooey reviews my book of poems Carte Blanche, along with new books of poems from Peter Boyle and Brendan Ryan. He writes: ‘Carte Blanche is an arresting calling-card, and – for me – it is one of this year’s most exciting poetic débuts.’
This Saturday, 20 July 2019, my debut book of poems will be launched at Mothership Studios, at 18-22 Sydney Street, Marrickville, Sydney, from 2:30-4:30pm, along with new books of poems by Peter Boyle, Natalie Harkin, and L.K. Holt. Sydneysiders are welcome to attend. Copies of CARTE BLANCHE will be available at the launch, and are available already from vagabondpress.net, along with all of Vagabond Press’s 2019 releases – books by Peter Boyle, a.j. carruthers, Toby Fitch, Natalie Harkin, L.K. Holt, and Jessica L. Wilkinson. A launch in my home city, Adelaide, will follow. Further details soon.
Thom Sullivan 