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Australian orders, 1 book $5.50, 2 or more $10.50
Overseas orders, 1 book $13, 2 books $20, 3 books or more $25.

In Adelaide, Ginninderra Press books are available at East Avenue Books, 53 East Avenue, Clarence Park 5034.


Warwick Anderson
Hard Cases, Brief Lives
‘What might a doctor say when he turns to poetry, or, more interesting, what kind of a doctor might a poet make? Warwick Anderson, who notes ‘twenty trees plugged into dark red dirt and yellow grass between me and her’ in a small town by the sea, who notices that ‘her grey hands held onto the steering wheel like begging white paws’, or who tries to find the life a woman lived in the few notes he has in a medical file for her, cuts straight when he slices his visions into poems. His eye is as direct as William Carlos Williams’, his tongue as sharp as Peter Goldsworthy’s. There are old cars, tiny houses, streets and bars in these poems, stale summer evenings, and young women. I know those places, I knew some of those women! - it’s a poetry of feelings we enter into here, and we see we’re there with the rest of humanity. The poems talk intimately without trying to talk knowingly. There is no protection here for doctor or patient. It is not surprising that a poet’s noisy emphysema is ‘more desperately meant and deeply felt’ than any other poem delivered at a reading, and when Warwick Anderson brings this to our attention, there’s that pleasure of knowing the poet, savouring the language, and recognising the experience. This is the kind of doctor I want to go to and listen to and read repeatedly.’ - Kevin Brophy
978 1 74027 659 7, 82pp, $22.00 BUY NOW

Chris Andrews
Cut Lunch
'These delicious poems, crammed with dailiness, establish Andrews as a powerful voice.' - Chris Wallace-Crabbe
'...a collection of solid virtue...' - Canberra Times
Winner, FAW Anne Elder Award for a first collection 2003
Indigo 1 74027 137 8, 86pp, $18.00 BUY NOW


Jude Aquilina & Ken Vincent (editors)
Mindfields
‘I believe it is important to tell people you love and trust if you are not well - to bring mental illness out of the closet and express how you feel. And this is done through the poems in this collection.’ - Mark Aiston
978 1 74027 699 3, 86pp, $20.00

Derek Baines
Flying Through Cloud
'These poems are elegant as a kimono. Indeed, at times they feel slightly Japanese - gentle, beautiful, graceful and flowing.' - Kate Llewellyn
1 74027 344 3, 74 pages, $18.00 BUY NOW


Elaine Barker
High Heels & Tartan Slippers
‘So much of life is experienced through the attention Elaine Barker gives to shoes in this admirable, absorbing collection. Shoes measure roads taken, carry memories, arouse speculation, record other worlds and histories. Their ordinariness takes on the infinite variety of humanity in the hands of a poet whose supple idiom of the “oddly angled”, surprising observation yields to deeper meditations on change, time and dream. What Gauguin’s shoes evoke for the poet is true of her own art with its “brief tender lines” and “sharp precision”. These shoes step out of the wardrobe, the photo album or the museum with the rhythm, balance and agility of dancing feet: “heel, toe, heel, toe, / as affirming as a heartbeat”.’ - Nicholas Jose
‘The lowly shoe, one of the great motifs of the twentieth century, is transformed into a powerful conceit beneath the pen of Elaine Barker. These poems are superb miniature meditations on memory. The shoe is, after all, what we often stare at, but neglect to read: the ebb and flow of time and the anxiety it generates.’ - Brian Castro
978 1 74027 708 2, 64pp, $22.00 BUY NOW

James Ian Bell
Welcome Abroad
Ian Bell is from Northern Ireland. He lives in Melbourne and writes poems.
‘This is a most aptly titled collection, for Ian Bell’s poems welcome us abroad, not only to locations, the brutal-comic encounters of Belfast or Geneva, the austere landscapes of Silesia, but to a particularly tough and delicate sensibility towards modernity. Here there are tender, wide-awake recollections of a parent, renewals of the love lyric that have an energy and wit recalling Donne or Marvell. Above all there is an intelligence, alert to the outlandishness of the modern world, its moments of baffling brutality, rueful good cheer, irrevocable delicacy. These poems are well made. They are incisive, often funny, often lateral in their take on common experience, but always fresh, while being aware of those parts of the lyric tradition in English-speaking poetry where they find their affinities.’ - Alan Gould
‘…exhilaratingly free of the gentility of much contemporary poetry…’ - Edinburgh Review
Indigo 978 1 74027 587 3, 72pp, $22.00 BUY NOW


Stefanie Bennett
Black Spring
Stefanie Bennett has published eighteen books of poetry. Over 39 years she has acted as a publishing editor, tutored in The Institute of Modern Languages at James Cook University and worked with Arts Action for Peace. Of mixed ancestry (Italian/Irish/German/Paugussett-Shawnee), she was born in Townsville, North Queensland, Australia.
‘Ms Bennett is perhaps one of the least-recognised important poets of the new wave.’ - Thomas Shapcott, The Australian
‘Thank goodness somebody thinks poems are forever. You go back to Dickinson.’ - Judith Wright, Blackfeather
‘Stefanie Bennett writes poetry with a capital P. Not for her the rueful ironies and domestic incidents that make up so much of her contemporaries’ work. She insists on a bardic voice, an unapologetic moral purpose and a communion with artists and true poets wherever and whenever they may be found.’ - Penelope Nelson, Quadrant
‘With everything about her the maverick her most recent book - The Hermit in Translation - executes a deep bow to tradition. Here Bennett’s own voice is found at liberty, possibly too a note of Dorothy Auchterlonie’s principled humanity. This is a daring leap, an original brew, both pious and innovative.’ - Judith Rodriguez, Hobo
‘Beyond Bennett’s undoubted technical skills is the quality which elevates her to the top rank of Australian poets. It is the way she effortlessly (well, apparently effortlessly - ars celare artis) enmeshes language and land, showing both to have value way beyond their capacity for exploitation, showing how both are inextricable aspects of humanity and human survival. In this, Symphony for Heart and Stone ranks with Chris Mansell’s Mortifications and Lies, Peter Minter’s Blue Grass and John Kinsella’s The New Arcadia as a fine example of a kind of 21st century poetry that is not only relevant but essential in a world, and especially a nation, where language, land and humanity are consistently being abused.’ - Tim Thorne, Famous Reporter
978 1 74027 702 0, 64pp, $18.50 BUY NOW

Robert James Berry
Stone
Robert James Berry lives and writes in Auckland, New Zealand. His work has been published widely. Stone is his second collection.
1 74027 283 8, 72pp, $18.00 BUY NOW

Robert James Berry
Seamark
Robert Berry's third collection is in three parts; the poems move from England, to South-East Asia, and finally New Zealand.
1 74027 330 3, 72pp, $18.00 BUY NOW

Robert James Berry
Sky Writing
Robert James Berry lives and writes in Auckland, New Zealand. Sky Writing is his fourth collection. It is divided into four sequences: 'Isthmus' charts the land, 'Beginnings' looks at people coming to that land, 'Voyagers' focuses on their sea journeys and 'Growing Up' considers their contemporary world. Sky Writing is dedicated to the author's country, New Zealand, and to his wife Ahila and their third son Srinath.
978 174027 394 7, 74pp, $18.00 BUY NOW

Robert James Berry
Sun Music
Robert James Berry lives and writes in Auckland, New Zealand. His poetry has appeared in literary journals in Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the UK, such as Westerly, Quadrant, Landfall, Rattapallax, Dandelion and Magma. Sun Music is his fifth collection.
978 1 74027 449 4, 60pp, $17.50 BUY NOW

Robert James Berry
Mudfishes
Robert James Berry’s sixth collection.
978 1 74027 512 5, 72pp, $18.00 BUY NOW


John Blackhawk
Against the Currents
‘John Blackhawk’s poems are so sophisticated in their reflections of his own and others’ experience...there’s life and death experiences in several countries...there’s religious, marital, parental and philanthropic love. They are lively and mature accounts of experience readers can relate to. John Blackhawk is an original talent.’ - Michael Sharkey
‘There’s a real richness, a clear eye, an enviable connection with nature, a fresh way with words, maturity, self knowledge...all great stuff.’ - Lauren Williams
‘I like the tone and voice, the relationship established between self, world, poem and reader.’ - Brook Emery
‘Sensual, spiritual, thrilling and funny... Against the Currents is a widescreen cornucopia of fizzing words and restless ideas all brought to the page by a writer with a deft touch and a rare power that makes it clear he has lived at least a version of every moment described (and more).’ - Adam Gibson
‘John Blackhawk’s poems move me with their gentle surprises, sensuous quality, wit and sharp observation. These are poems of the senses, poems of other worlds and poems of the everyday. The reader can’t help but fall into them.’ - Sarah Attfield
978 1 74027 643 6, 74pp, $18.50 BUY NOW

Bridge Foundation
Fighting the Demons
This anthology gives a voice to prisoners and their family members.
'The voices, male and female, are sorrowful and bleak. I learnt more about contemporary prison experience than I have from any recent media report.' - The Age
1 74027 278 1, 72pp, $18.00 BUY NOW

Kate Bristow
See It While You Live
A witty collection of wry reflections on the pleasures, the puzzles and the predicaments of contemporary life.
978 1 74027 390 9, 48pp, $17.50 BUY NOW


Geoff Brougham
Late Start, Long Journey
After graduating from The University of Adelaide in the 1960s, Geoff Brougham spent over thirty years as an English teacher in secondary schools in South Australia, a career interspersed with a decade spent breeding and training racehorses, riding trackwork and being a part-time wool grower, cattleman and share cropper. His obvious attachment to poetry - the writing of it - arose in Brougham’s fifties after a year’s teaching in the isolated town of Peterborough in the state’s Mid-North. In this rugged environment with its extremes of temperature, he developed a finer understanding of the intricate interplay between man and Nature. Many of his poems explore this relationship and challenge the myth of human exceptionalism. Brougham cites John Keats and Seamus Heaney as his major poetic influences.
978 1 74027 698 6, 76pp, $18.50 BUY NOW


Ron Browning
Flickering Lights
A collection of poems about refugee character. The author has been a friend of the Karen people (from Burma) for several years. Their struggle for peace and freedom, rarely mentioned in the media, has been long and continues. Many Karen have been cruelly treated and displaced from their villages. Some have moved to border camps and others have recently resettled in Australia, the USA and other Western countries. These poems trace this journey, focusing on a people’s amazing inner strength, loyalty and rich culture in the face of oppression.
978 1 74027 709 9, 56pp, $20.00 BUY NOW

Dawn Bruce
Tangible Shadows
'In this, her second collection, the poet emerges from the confines of grief and the more introspective climate of her first collection to "light and space/across an unsullied beach,/to a blur of aquamarine/and the faraway horizon."' - Lesley Walter
Winner, Society of Women Writers NSW Biennial Book Awards 2007
1 74027 331 1, 86pp, $20.00 BUY NOW

Dawn Bruce
Sketching Light
'Dawn Bruce's sustained engagement with Japanese poetic genres informs her free verse too, imbuing it with spare elegance and a keen sense of the immediate. This is disciplined writing that prunes the extraneous and allows us to see the clear images upon which this poet bases her commentary on human experience. Dawn's love of and commitment to poetry is evident in every line.' - Beverley George
978 1 74027 476 0, 92pp, $20.00 BUY NOW

Michael Byrne
A Man of Emails
A Man of Emails follows on from Michael Byrne's previous collection Southbound. Again, there is the balance between his painterly imagism and his quirky use of traditional form. With technical flair and flamboyancy, Byrne explores matters relating to his history, environment and psyche. Get to know A Man of Emails.
'There is manifest intelligence in Byrne's poetry and an emerging technical competence... Let us hope for more from him.' - Peter Pierce, The Canberra Times
'A Man of Emails is persuasively, even riskily autobiographical. There are things to be learned from it.' - Geoff Page
'There is both a disciplined control and a soaring transcendence in his craft.' - Bill Tully, Voice
Winner, Poetry, ACT Writing & Publishing Awards 2011
978 1 74027 603 0, 38pp, $18.00 BUY NOW


Michael Byrne (editor)
The Indigo Book of Australian Prose Poems
This selection of one hundred prose poems published in Australia since the 1970s demonstrates what a hip, bohemian and subversive vein the prose poem is. Prose poetry has proved a most flexible vehicle for an extraordinary range of Australian talent - from Gary Catalano to Joanne Burns, from Ania Walwicz to Alex Skovron. There have been overseas anthologies of prose poems but no Australian counterpart. The Indigo Book of Australian Prose Poems meets the needs of students, reviewers and the general literature loving public.
‘Reading this anthology will, happily, lead me back to my library and bookshop, hungry for more Australian prose poems.’ - Spineless Wonders website
Indigo 978 1 74027 650 4, 152pp, $25.00 BUY NOW

David Campbell
Hardening of the Light
David Campbell is one of the finest lyric poets in the English language and in this, the first selection from his work since Leonie Kramer's 1989 edition of The Collected Poems, Phillip Mead has chosen from across the entire range of the poetry.
'...should occasion a revaluation of a poet now slightly remembered, but who can endure.' - Canberra Times
Indigo 1 74027 373 7, 132pp, $20.00 BUY NOW


Helene Castles
Strings of Life
‘One reason for writing in verse is that it is a deeply personal way of communicating. Helene Castles’ collection illustrates this quite superbly. This poet has her own engaging and gently perceptive voice. The wording of her poetry is reflective and ideally chosen to convey whatever she chooses to share about her life experiences.’ - Patrick Crudden
978 1 74027 691 7, 60pp, $20.00 BUY NOW

Gary Catalano
New & Selected Poems 1973-2002
'Gary Catalano was an important Australian poet. His talent was exquisitely refined, both in his subtle verse and in the prose poetry which he took to a higher pitch of excellence than any other Australian has attained. He was also a discerning critic both of literature and of painting, and his important collection of paintings and other works is housed under his name in the Ballarat Fine Art Gallery. This book comprises a selection of his best earlier poems, plus the text of his last book, which was almost complete when he died, still tragically young, in 2002.' - Les Murray
'Limpid lines, his ability to imbue the smallest details with significance and his knack for rendering the contours of experience have a "painterly" quality about them expressed in spare, subtle lyrics...' - Sydney Morning Herald
'...a fine poet with a distinctive style.' - Australian Book Review
Indigo 978 1 74027 430 2, 219pp, $30.00 BUY NOW

Prithvindra Chakravarti
Man Moon Earth
This collection covers periods in Prithvindra Chakravarti’s life and the reflections and insights he gained into the life of the village-dwelling peasants, artisans and entertainers in West Bengal, where he was born; and in his later periods in Kolkata, Chicago, Papua New Guinea, China and the Northern Territory in Australia. The title poem stands out as his signature poem: the juxtaposition of the often terrible reality of man’s earthly dilemma; the serenity, comfort and protection of the ‘all watching’ and safe ‘moon’; and the penetrating commentary on the beauty of nature and the ‘earth’.
978 1 74027 552 1, 72pp, $18.00 BUY NOW

Pam Cole
Calico Blue
Harsh yet delicate, these poems echo the fragile beauty of the Australian country landscapes which form the background to the writer's lifetime. Ranging from young motherhood to her seventy-fifth year, this small selection captures in vivid imagery and precise language a range of personal, universal and contemporary issues as well as her passionate love and concern for the land.
978 1 74027 601 6, 92pp, $22.00 BUY NOW


Anne Collins
My Friends This Landscape
‘A spacious walking meditation on place by an attentive and courageously permeable writer who has come to love this island as intensely as those of us bound to it by birth and ancestry and who has allowed its presence to inhabit and inform the quietly assured cadences of her verse and prose. Journeys of the spirit, landscapes of the mind and heart, symphony and silence, bone and blood and leaf and stone of country - from Cockle Creek to Albert Road, Moonah, Montrose to Mount Wellington, Bicheno to Cradle Mountain and beyond - this carefully crafted collection of poetry and essays, earthed and numinous, bound by location and a particular lived experience but infinite in intimation, exhilarating and deeply restful, is a small jewel of a work.’ - Terry Whitebeach
978 1 74027 657 3, 70pp, $22.00 BUY NOW

Nance Cookson
Laughing in the Street
The latest good-humoured collection from the pen of this popular NSW South Coast poet.
978 1 74027 403 6, 40pp, $15.00 BUY NOW

Nance Cookson
The Question the Answer
A smorgasbord of thoughts and ideas ranging from sardines, crayfish in pots, the Blarney stone, a Degas painting, blowflies and wild things to Cicero and the dustman, with a question and an answer along the way.
978 1 74027 530 9, 36pp, $12.50 BUY NOW

Thérèse Corfiatis
Emissaries of Light
These diverse poems explore the symbol of light and its impact on her life. Thérèse believes the human mind is a receptacle for the light. Inner spirituality, beauty of landscape, the vulnerability of humanity, and the need for forgiveness and healing explore this theme. Her poems are an authentic expression of living.
1 74027 319 2, 72pp, $18.00 BUY NOW

Thérèse Corfiatis
Northern Lights
Thérèse Corfiatis lives on Tasmania's north-west coast at Ulverstone. In this collection, her poems explore displacement and loss, journeys that take us through 'cathedrals of blood and bone' and how these journeys redefine a sense of belonging to any given place. Her deep love of landscape transforms into the sacred. Themes of light, colour and space cry out. Be prepared to go on a journey that will take you into every human emotion.
978 1 74027 511 8, 76pp, $18.00 BUY NOW

Thérèse Corfiatis
The Edge of Tranquillity
‘The benefice of nature becomes the touchstone for the majority of poems in this collection. Nature manifests itself in all aspects of the senses and in this the poet paints, for the reader, a palette of nature’s deliverances. Even the raw emotions become tempered with the pulsating rhythm of nature. It is as if the benevolence of nature accepts and understands the torments of the human heart and helps lead those who are infused with nature’s delights to the edge of tranquillity.’ - Fay Forbes
978 1 74027 636 8, 74pp, $18.50 BUY NOW

William Cotter
Cloud Gazing
Bairnsdale teacher William Cotter's third collection.
1 74027 332 X, 76 pages, $18.00 BUY NOW

William Cotter
Refractions
Moments and individual encounters help give meaning to our lives. Some we record because they give us pleasure. Some because they link us with people. Some because they emphasise our loneliness. Some are brim full of joy. Others are empty wells, or long echoes of sadness. Few are ever really forgotten.
978 1 74027 508 8, 76pp, $18.00 BUY NOW


William Cotter
Light Within the Stone
Often, for many people,
Life seems to have the hardness of stone,
Grey, unresponsive, impenetrable and without meaning.
These poems are attempts to find,
For one person at least,
Beauty and, perhaps, nourishment within that hardness,
Sometimes by chipping,
Sometimes by striking and, like Moses,
Hoping water will flow forth,
Sometimes by stooping,
Overturning and analysing what lies beneath,
Sometimes simply by taking time
To admire the play of light and shade over the surface.
978 1 74027 670 2, 76pp, $18.50 BUY NOW

P.S. Cottier
The Glass Violin
Poems about dogs, gods, Australia’s military operations, injustice, politics, music, teeth, ageing, childhood and those little pieces of plastic that hold bread-bags together. A diverse collection, marked by vivid imagery, inventive use of language and humour. P.S. Cottier has worked as a university tutor, a union organiser, a lawyer and a tea lady. After finishing a PhD on images of animals in Dickens, she finds herself particularly attracted to short poems. She lives in Canberra and is now able to write full time.
‘...there is a sharp, ordered poetic intelligence at work in these mostly short, accessible poems.’ - Cordite
‘...restless, impacted energy...’ - Canberra Times
Highly commended, Society of Women Writers NSW Biennial Book Awards 2009
978 1 74027 525 5, 90pp, $22.50 BUY NOW


P.S. Cottier
The Cancellation of Clouds
It’s a fine line between reality and fantasy. These poems open up a world of atheistic angels, grammar obsessed fairies, depressive canned laughter, invisible cats and floating sheep. P.S. Cottier also touches on more traditional poetic concerns, such as death and music, in her lively and inventive language.
‘Cottier is an eccentric, and one who writes well.’ -  Michael Byrne
‘…droll, intelligent and varied.’ - Canberra Times
978 1 74027 695 5, 58pp, $20.00 BUY NOW

Nina D'Arcy
A Guarded Truth
A first collection which includes reflections on modern life and suburban living. It also provides windows into a range of relationships and surroundings.
1 74027 372 9, 58pp, $17.50 BUY NOW

Wilma Davidson
Grand Love
Some years ago a friend who had just become a grandparent told Wilma Davidson that every other love prepared you for the love a grandparent feels for a grandchild and this love is like no other. The moment Wilma held her granddaughter for the first time; she knew this to be true, that this was indeed Grand Love. This collection of poetry journeys through Wilma's three years of being a grandparent and the joys and sorrows of other grandparents, be they friends or strangers.
978 1 74027 585 9, 42pp, $18.00 BUY NOW

Beryl Doble & Ro Marriott
Voices Against the Wind
Two poets, with distinctive voices and a flair for language, share their thoughts on yesterday, today and tomorrow.
1 74027 352 4, 58pp, $17.50 BUY NOW


Beryl Doble & Ro Marriott
Of Two Minds
Of Two Minds brings two fine poets - and good friends - together for a second time. They present sharply contrasting yet complementary visions. Beryl Doble’s poems show a truthful and puncturing gaze which sees through surface superficiality to darker truths within. Her work has a sweeping moral vision which illuminates both the personal and the political. Yet her lively poems have sensuality too, and a sharp sense of wry humour. Ro Marriott’s evocative and disturbing contribution shows a very different kind of ‘mindscope’. Her hauntingly beautiful and precise poems use powerful imagery to evoke a dreamlike state. Sometimes ghostly, sometimes surreal, her spare and delicate writing draws on the unconscious mind in ways that reveals and sometimes shock, letting us see the world afresh. Yet there are strong connections between both contributions, of hard-won insights born of an unusual combination of sensitivity and toughness. Of Two Minds brings together two strong and independent women courageous enough to think honestly about life.
978 1 74027 646 7, 72pp, $18.50 BUY NOW

Melanie Duncan
Looking Through the Glass
Melanie Duncan's first collection is evocative and diverse. It invites the reader to open and explore.
1 74027 351 6, 36pp, $17.50 BUY NOW

Suzanne Edgar
The Painted Lady
Focuses on art, the natural world, the intimacy of love, human caprice. These poems will stop you in your tracks with the force of their emotional intensity.
'...a highly intelligent, inventive and gifted poet...' - Les Murray
'Sincere, intimate and straightforward...' - Canberra Times
Highly commended, Poetry, ACT Writing & Publishing Awards 2007
Indigo 978 1 74027 398 5, 100pp, $20.00 BUY NOW

Brenda Eldridge
The Silver Cord
Brenda Eldridge says, 'We cannot always control what touches our lives. We do all have the gift of choice. We can choose how we are going to allow ourselves to be affected. Bitterness seeps in unnoticed if we are not vigilant and sours everything we do, think and say. There is much to be learned from watching how Mother Nature heals the wounds inflicted by uncaring, thoughtless mankind. By watching others, we can use them as an example of how we do, or don’t, want to be.'
‘...the voice of this poet is warm, simple without being simplistic, true to life and melodious.’ - Tamba
978 1 74027 538 5, 76pp, $18.00 BUY NOW
Also available as ebook in epub format
978 1 74027 623 8, $10.00 BUY NOW

Brenda Eldridge
It's All Good
In her first collection, The Silver Cord, the author shared her journey of rebuilding a life shattered by tragedy and broken dreams. It's All Good further explores that journey, revealing that the balance between the dark and the light is not always precarious and that it is the combination of wisdom and youthful persistence that teaches us to find the positive in every experience.
‘Every piece is a poem with the perception only poetry can deliver.’ - Studio
978 1 74027 570 5, 88pp, $20.00 BUY NOW

Brenda Eldridge
A Personal View
In her earlier collections, the author wrote of her journey of recovery from facing tragedy to seeing that the world and life are filled with good things when we allow ourselves to be open to them. Having poems published opened the door to a new way of living. A Personal View is a collection of observations and discoveries made in the first year of the author's new life beside a tidal reach and shows, again, how nature has been keenly instrumental in the continuing healing of old sorrows.
‘The collection showcases a beautiful array of natural and domestic images, described in free verse style. Windy nights, the mighty Huon River, dolphins and pelicans decorate her patient observance. Even notions of a passing train like some ‘giant caterpillar’ continue to draw relationships to nature rather than to artifice.’ - Voice
‘A Personal View is not something to read in a rush. Not even something to read from start to finish necessarily. Brenda Eldridge’s latest book is something to dip into, like the water she writes about. Take your time, breathe, enjoy the poems, enjoy nature, enjoy the moment.’ - Sharon Kernot
978 1 74027 617 7, 66pp, $18.50 BUY NOW


Brenda Eldridge
From My Garden
There are those who would have us believe there can be closure to emotions. What they really mean is they don’t want to hear about them any more. But if we want to be true to ourselves and truly alive, we must learn how to embrace our experiences and all the feelings that came with them. In stillness, all things are possible. For this poet, a quiet garden, a walk on the beach, mean the natural rhythms of life ease angst and act as balm on wounds that can never heal, while her spirit still soars to the far reaches of the Universe and rejoices in being alive.
978 1 74027 714 3, 72pp, $18.50 BUY NOW


Brenda Eldridge
Facing Cancer
We were enjoying a blissful life, making the most of every day. I, the poet, was still rather bemused by the freedoms of retirement and Stephen was doing what he loves - publishing. Our idyll was rudely interrupted when we were told that Stephen had cancer. We were suddenly thrust into an unaccustomed world. This is not a horror story. Stephen relied on stoicism and determination to get through. The poet wrote her way through a harsh reality and the story of a new love that was tested - and not found wanting. The unfailing love and support of family, friends and caring dedicated medical professionals was lavishly laced with black humour. Homemade soup with love in every spoonful has to be the best remedy for healing. Once again the poet found comfort in the gift of words in a time of dire need and the ongoing struggle between darkness and light.
‘...a declaration of courage and of love in a crisis, a testament to all who are touched by cancer. Beyond that, we are reminded of the healing power of love, and of writing.’ - Ann Nadge
978 1 74027 661 0, 72pp, $18.50 BUY NOW


Brenda Eldridge (editor)
Brave Enough To Be a Poet
Seven poets - four from Tasmania, three from South Australia, with more than a dozen published collections of poetry between them - discuss the question ‘Are you brave enough to be a poet?’ and reveal some passionate and surprising reasons for pursuing their craft.
978 1 74027 692 4, 40pp, $12.50 BUY NOW


Brenda Eldridge (editor)
The Heart of Port Adelaide
Twenty-eight writers reflect in fiction, non-fiction and poetry on the past, present and future of Port Adelaide.
‘Port Adelaide is not so different from many country towns whose fortunes have come and gone. For all the hype about making it into something new and glitzy, I suspect the ghosts have other ideas. It is the home of people who recognise there is more to life than material ownership and still enjoy buying their vegetables from a greengrocer and stamps from cheerful ladies in the post office.’ - Brenda Eldridge
978 1 74027 705 1, 122pp, $20.00 BUY NOW


Joan Fenney
Marilyn Monroe by the Brooklyn Bridge
‘Meet people like your own friends, neighbours, family, and taste slices of life from the rich and famous, in these skilfully crafted poetic portraits. Joan Fenney shares their little secrets and idiosyncrasies, eavesdrops on their conversations, looks inside their handbags. An intelligent, accessible collection which exposes the loves, losses, thoughts and aspirations of humankind.’ - Jude Aquilina
978 1 74027 559 0, 84pp, $20.00 BUY NOW


Amelia Fielden (editor)
Food for Thought
‘Well-known writer and translator Amelia Fielden is the editor of this collection of tanka by 45 different Australian poets which celebrates the love of food and drink. The voices in this book are diverse; the kinds of tanka gathered here are varied in style and tone. This is an anthology like no other: rather than merely defining a particular territory, the work of the writers gathered here in fact illuminates the way in which food and drink impinge on our lives: childhood, relationships, love, celebrations, the seasons, travels, works of art, ageing and more. Frequently inventive and painterly in their impressions, the tanka underline a musical melody in the poets’ writing that animates each line of every tanka and whose inclusiveness, imagination and play are the life of every poem. These are bright, intelligent, direct tanka that have a playful way with images. Their compression, sensibility and respect for language is a delight.’ - Patricia Prime, editor of Kokako
‘How satisfying this buffet of tanka from Down Under. The menu features distinctively Australian foods such as yabbies, Weetbix, minted lamb chops, quince paste, “melting moment” biscuits, and billy cans full of blackberries. Forty-five poets, both well-known tankaists and newcomers to the form, offer an exotic and delightful feast for the senses.’ - Margaret Chula, President, Tanka Society of America
978 1 74027 712 9, 40pp, $15.00 BUY NOW

Barbara Fisher
Archival Footwork
'Poems of sensuous precision.' - Elizabeth Webby
'...a gift to readers who love poetry that reinstates the primacy of wit.' - Michael Sharkey
'...lyrical evocations of life...' - Peter Coleman, Adelaide Review
Indigo 1 74027 096 7, 88pp, $18.00 BUY NOW

Barbara Fisher
Still Life, Other Life
'Life in all its variety is at the heart of this fine collection of poems. Barbara Fisher shows her mastery of the compressed narrative that is poetry at its best, evoking a world in a grain of sand.' - Elizabeth Webby
'A sparkling collection. These poems are cut from life and from the mind with the sharpest possible scissors.' - Kevin Brophy
'Barbara Fisher is a past master of the lyric moment, the poem that evokes an experience in time with wry humour and apt observation.' - Five Bells
Highly commended, Society of Women Writers NSW Biennial Book Awards 2009
978 1 74027 442 5, 86pp, $20.00 BUY NOW

John Foulcher
Convertible
John Foulcher's sixth book of poetry is his most assured, complex and expansive collection.
Indigo 174027 027 4, 74pp, $18.00 BUY NOW

William Freedman
Being Them All
A collection of animal poems - fleas to bears - by a poet whose work has appeared in some of America's most prestigious journals.
1 74027 345 1, 76pp, $18.00 BUY NOW

William Freedman
Some Can
Bill Freedman, Professor Emeritus of English Literature at the University of Haifa, in Israel, teaches in the Sakhnin College for Teacher Education in the Arab town of Sakhnin. His poetry has appeared in The American Poetry Review, The Antioch Review, The Iowa Review, The Quarterly, The International Quarterly and elsewhere.
978 1 74027 540 8, 74pp, $18.00 BUY NOW

William Freedman
Last Things & After
These are what one might call eschatological poems, small poems about the largest things, temporal poems about the final things. They are poems about ageing, loss, dying and what might come after, sceptical visions of immortality, often in the form of the surprising traces we leave. They include an ongoing one-voiced dialogue with God: complaints about his seeming cruelty or indifference, preposterous anger at his likely non-existence, but humble thankfulness for the creation, whosoever’s it may be. Above all, these poems express a defiant insistence on the beauty and meaning of mere being in the absence of anything greater or larger. An awed appreciation for the heavens, whatever may lie behind them, and a love of earth. ‘A man’s reach should exceed his grasp,’ Browning wrote in Andrea Del Sarto, ‘Or what’s a heaven for?’ Finally, these poems are about the grasp, about what we find in our hands: little or nothing, perhaps, if we reach for too much, but a great deal, much that is quite beautiful, wonderful and precious, if we hold tightly and appreciatively enough to what there undeniably is. Not what exceeds our grasp, but what is within it, including the capacity to look beyond: to ask, to shake our fists and wonder.
978 1 74027 666 5, 76pp, $18.50 BUY NOW


Michelle Gaddes
Pariah
‘…engaging, dark and witty and rambunctious and really kind of wonderful…’ - Gaylene Perry
978 1 74027 703 7, 40pp, $18.00 BUY NOW

Danny Gardner
Before I Press the Trigger
'Danny Gardner has a journalist's eye for the human situation. In this wide-ranging collection, the poems move from Dan Leahy in Papua to Brett Whiteley in Thirroul; from a refugee camp in Malaysia to Charles Perkins on the Freedom Ride in 1965. There is often a sense of the multifarious nature of injustice, of the way people's attempt to construct meaning can be destroyed by the things that happen to them.' - Martin Langford
978 1 74027 544 6, 104pp, $25.00 BUY NOW

George Genovese
Time Steals Softer
George Genovese was born in Malta in 1962 and immigrated to Australia in 1967. In 1985 he graduated from La Trobe University with a major in philosophy. He has since read his poetry at various venues in Victoria.
978 1 74027 408 1, 76pp, $18.00 BUY NOW


Ruby Langford Ginibi
All Ginibi’s Mob
In early 1990, I thought I’d try and get an anthology of poems going and asked some of my friends and family to contribute, and what you read in this anthology is a culmination of all the gathering I did. There’s 134 poems, 23 contributors, males and females, so here it is. Read and enjoy our voices. There are poems of love, hate, anger, dreaming, land, culture, animals, philosophy, respect, missionaries, colonisers, survival, politics, caring, life, death, and hope.
Published in association with the Riawunna Centre at the University of Tasmania
978 1 74027 685 6, 166pp, $22.00 BUY NOW

Alan Gould
A Fold in the Light
‘A Fold in the Light is perhaps the finest of Alan Gould's collections and includes some of his meticulous yet evocative maritime drawings.
'His images have the power of surprise in what they ask us to see again.' - Canberra Times
'...one of our best poets.' - Quadrant
Limited, signed edition
Indigo 1 74027 081 9, 76pp, $30.00 BUY NOW


Jill Gower (editor)
Frost & Fire
'The poems are individual in style and voice, but thoughtful selection of common themes and an overall meditative tone unite them into a cohesive reflection on humanity's response to its own constructs and to its place in nature.' - Studio
978 1 74027 565 1, 76pp, $18.00 BUY NOW


Nicholas Grapsias
The Children of Leonidas
The decade of 1940 to 1950 is considered by historians as one of the darkest in Greece’s history. This is the diarised poetry of Nikolaos, mayor of the village Malamata, who fought in World War II and the Greek Civil War. The collection weaves ancient and modern history, focusing on the Battle of Thermopylae and the Peloponnesian War, which are parallelled to the two recent wars. Through Nikolaos, we experience the sheer horrors of warfare - death and destruction, atrocities against women and children, famine, disease and the brutal ‘brother against brother’ of the Communist partisan insurgency. Towards the end of both wars, Nikolaos finds himself struggling with his sanity, his alcoholism and his faith. He realises that even good moral men are capable of horrendous crimes, a contrast to the Homeric glorification of war he was brought up with. Nikolaos symbolises the truths of war, and what it means to be human - fear, love, hate, weakness and the desire to stay alive whatever the cost in order to see one’s family and home again.
‘An outstanding collection of poetry - a work of feeling and genuine storytelling in poetic form, from one of the most outstanding students I have ever supervised in all levels of study.’ - Gary Langford
‘Suddenly one becomes aware of a genuine literary talent at work; powerful, terse, and moving - showing, not telling. [The poems] constitute a fine sequence and certainly a contribution to the genre.’ - Thomas Shapcott
‘The free verse of this book is at times magnificent...near-great book...’ - Overland
978 1 74027 537 8, 122pp, $22.00 BUY NOW


Molly Guy
Briefs
‘Molly Guy is a true original. She is always alive to the possibilities of the quirky and the eccentric. The world of her poetry is one of offbeat grotesqueries of thought and observation, delightfully comic, but always pricking beneath the oddities of the surface to the universal truths that lie beneath. To read her work is to breathe fresh air with a faint whiff of something exotic and unexpected.’ - Tim Thorne
‘Molly Guy’s writing is unique - similar to some other comic writers but in no way derivative. She is an acrid commentator on the human condition and a left-field philosopher. She is both humorous and miserable. Her characters are ghastly and endearing and her descriptive powers quite frightening. Briefs describes itself. One would expect these shorter versions of her work would have less to say, but to my surprise they did not. They were compacted without loss of meaning because her greatest attribute is her ability to conclude, no matter what length the work is.’ - Geoffrey Dean
978 1 74027 658 0, 76pp, $18.50 BUY NOW

Eileen Haley
Full Circle
Full Circle is a poem sequence which takes a novice grandmother around the world, seeking out magic places and connections as she summons up courage for a task she must accomplish before she comes back home.
978 1 74027 402 9, 140pp, $22.00 BUY NOW

Cynthia Hallam
Bread and Butter People
A very enjoyable, well observed collection of light-hearted poems.
1 74027 226 9, 72pp, $18.00 BUY NOW

Cynthia Hallam
Rising to the Occasion: Performance Poems for Everyone
Cynthia Hallam's poems have appeared in magazines and anthologies, been read on ABC radio and performed on stage.
1 74027 304 4, 58pp, $17.50 BUY NOW

Cynthia Hallam
Town Life
Cynthia Sidney Hallam grew up in Lismore in the Northern Rivers district of New South Wales. Her poems have appeared in magazines and anthologies, been read on ABC radio and performed on stage. She now lives in the Blue Mountains, west of Sydney.
978 1 74027 460 9, $18.00 BUY NOW

Cynthia Hallam
Living in the Moment
The lively fourth collection from this popular poet.
978 1 74027 638 2, $18.00 BUY NOW

Dale Harcombe
Kaleidoscope
'...beautiful stuff, delicately observed, lovely images, and clear, lucid observations.' - Sophie Masson
'There is a real poetic understanding of the influences on a life in this work, and all show a deep empathy with other people’s inner lives.' - Artlook
'Her poems have exposed her heart, and I like what I see.' - Studio
1 74027 297 8, 64 pages, $17.50 BUY NOW

Daphne Hargreaves
A Briefcase of Lives
As with Daphne Hargreaves’s previous books, this new volume maintains a balance between what is new and what she has drawn from earlier life. The poems in A Briefcase of Lives are not just to read, they are to reflect on, to muse over and to read out loud. Most are gutsy and honest. Others are shy and retiring. They are nostalgic, they are about life.
978 1 74027 586 6, 100pp, $25.00 BUY NOW

Mary Hawthorne
Woven All Into a Cloth
'Unpretentious, emotionally and psychologically acute, sometimes wry, it records the way things are; and the way they are not.' - Brook Emery
'Her poetry has a willed openness to what challenges her eye...' - Canberra Times
1 74027 162 9, 88pp, $18.00 BUY NOW


Ron Heard
The Shadow of Troy
‘Ron Heard’s recreation of the siege of Troy is graphic and imaginative, as seen through the eyes of a Greek warrior. This verse novel never falters in its respect for the original tale. But it is a respect also for that culture from which Homer’s original tale comes. While there may be some question today as to whether Homer was one man of several, there is no question about the authentic identity of Heard’s The Shadow of Troy. As an interpretation of the terrible nature of war it is as vivid as Crane’s The Red Badge of Courage. The very taste and texture of those times is dramatically evoked. Indeed, even the politics of conflict (and the deepening awareness of love in such a context) are both effectively intertwined. Both involve the struggle of the individual in the context of the collective will to war. Old sins have long shadows, they say. Heard’s terse version reaches even to Afghanistan and beyond...’ - Bruce Dawe
‘The Shadow of Troy is written with an excitement for moment and language. Heard writes of epic battles, of human bafflement, of nights gone sultry and nets cast in the sea of love. The combination of narrative and verse works effortlessly: “‘Methia asks Mnea to join her / singing the women’s bean planting song / slow rhythm for the planting / sudden leaps up the scale   to encourage beans to grow / their two voices entwine / like bean stems.” The descriptions of both nature - “we see scraps of stars” - and character - “haunting as well as haunted” - create a vivid and engaging text.’ - Kevin Gillam
978 1 74027 715 0, 206pp, $27.50 BUY NOW

Graeme Hetherington
Life Given
These are lyrics of remarkable self-scrutiny, an older poet's fierce struggle to find pattern in the life given.
'...brutal - but beautifully brave' - Five Bells
Indigo 1 74027 143 2, 88pp, $18.00 BUY NOW

Ginny Jackson
The Still Deceived
At the heart of this collection is the human struggle to delineate between our frontal minds and our biological imperatives. Philosophical in their outlook, many of these poems deal with the subjectivity of human experience and our inability to grasp the nature of existence. Here life’s solemn rites of passage are viewed through the vicissitudes of memory. These poems reflect a strong sense of place, and the power of the Tasmanian landscape and its seasons to transfigure day-to-day life.
‘This is a poetic voice that is fresh, bleak, resilient, its force maintained until the last and title poem...’ - The Canberra Times
978 1 74027 612 2, $18.50 BUY NOW

Rosemary Jaensch
Still Bemused
After a lifetime of observing human nature, it is still possible to wonder at the diversity of personalities, be mesmerised by the play of light and shadows in our lives, and yet be still bemused by new experiences.
1 74027 279 X, 68pp, $18.00 BUY NOW

Angela Johnson
Neon Moons
'Angela Johnson's poetry celebrates "the small personal voice", its insistent pursuit of the unique in the quotidian. Ranging over the realities of poverty, family relationships and love, and probing the connections between humanity and the natural world, these poems often surprise with their poignant, clear-eyed observation.' - Louise Wakeling
1 74027 284 6, 72pp, $18.00 BUY NOW

Judith E.P. Johnson
Landmarks
A collection combining this fifth-generation Tasmanian's most recent poems with the best from her four previous books.
'This is a fine collection of thoughtful poems.' - Sunday Tasmanian
1 74027 338 9, 96pp, $20.00 BUY NOW

Adele Ogier Jones
Afghanistan - waiting for the bus
Political themes are common in these poems, though more often it is the snapshot of ordinary Afghan people affected by the ongoing war, and the international security assistance forces and international aid agencies which feature. The title poem, 'Waiting for the bus', captures much of this. Loneliness, love and loss are common themes, with the backdrop to all of it the land - remote, rugged and beautiful. While the picture is dark, there is hope in these poems - and sometimes a rare humour.
'This is not the snake oil version of events purveyed by military and government spokespersons, nor the confused swill of corporate media. It is a quiet contemplation in 54 poetic works written by a civilian woman in sojourn with Afghani people. A book to embrace.' - Rhonda Jankovic, Spoken Word, 3CR
978 1 74027 447 0, 75pp, $18.00 BUY NOW


Eileen Jones
Reflections
Eileen Jones lives in Sydney and has also lived in several NSW country towns as well as Brisbane and Perth. She has worked as an accountant, and as secondary school teacher. She has attained an AMEB, Teacher, Speech and Drama, and a PhD in Psychophysiology. In 1994 Eileen had a near-death experience when a suburban bus on which she was travelling was involved in an accident. She sustained significant brain damage and was warned she might never regain her verbal skills. She began writing poetry during her convalescence and, later, prose. Since then her work has appeared in several literary magazines. Her first collected poems The Heart of the Matter, her memoir The Accidental Poet, and A Potpourri of Prose, a selection of essays, have been published by Ginninderra Press.
978 1 74027 657 3, 70pp, $22.00 BUY NOW

Elizabeth Jones
Into the Darkness, Into the Night
One person in every five will experience depression at some stage during their life. What you see from the outside is often a drop in the ocean of the anguish below. A shallow hole can spiral into a deep and sinister pit where time stands still and living is agony. There’s nothing but the cold, dark loneliness to play evil games with your mind. Elizabeth Jones has compiled this poetic journey through her own depression. From falling into that sinister pit, she pens a visual rendering of pain, suffering, survival and triumph without ever leaving the confines of her own mind. This book is a tribute to those who have suffered, a humbling education for those who haven’t and a small comfort to those who are faced with this all too common illness.
978 1 74027 484 5, 56pp, $17.50 BUY NOW

Patricia Jones
A Postcard to Sylvia Plath: Poems from the dark edge
‘Patricia writes with passion, incisiveness and lucidity to reveal a life filled and felt to the hilt. Her work brings to mind my favourite piece by the artist Louise Bourgoise, who once embroidered on a handkerchief in perfect stitch, “I have been to hell and back and let me tell you it was wonderful.” So too are the depths and heights that Patricia descends and scales, taking the reader with her all the way.’ - Carole Douglas, artist, writer, traveller
‘Patricia Jones has a unique voice that comes from the intensity of her life’s experience. Although that voice is her own, it resonates much more widely. Her eye for the darker side of life is unflinching, but it is softened with humanity, compassion and a gentle humour that lifts the spirit. Read her poems and allow your own heart to be touched.’ - Louise Gilmore, meditation teacher, writer
‘Patricia Jones, playwright, artist and poet, does not let the reader off lightly. Her poetry is strong, sensual, sometimes confronting raw truths. She fills the reader with creative images and clever juxtaposition. Her work demands the reader’s attention. There is no prissy emotion here. Patricia’s work takes no prisoners yet at the same time is food for the soul.’ - Margaret L. Grace, poet, artist and writer
978 1 74027 649 8, 50pp, $20.00 BUY NOW


Sharon Kernot
Washday Pockets
A collection of poems that will delight any reader. Written in an accessible language, domestic relationships are examined in all their grittiness. It is an honest disclosure of domestic life where sorrow, loss and separation are interwoven with love, humour and an over-riding celebration of life.
978 1 74027 644 3, 70pp, $18.50 BUY NOW


Sharon Kernot & Ken Vincent (editors)
New Voices
‘New Voices is a vibrant and varied collection of poems certain to entertain and inform its readers. Well-known poets, such as Steve Evans, Mike Ladd, Cathy Young, Jules Leigh Koch and Louise Nicholas, are published beside rising stars Ken Vincent, Helen Lindstrom, Sharon Kernot, Gary MacRae and others. W.H. Auden said, ‘As a rule, a sign that a beginner has a genuine original talent is that he[/she] is more interested in playing with words than in saying something...’ In New Voices, poets play with skill and abandon as they roll words along tricky mazes and toss language in the air - the oft-published alongside the first published, all juggling their own truths and observations to the music of poetry. Yes, there is something circus-like about New Voices. The ring holds many stories and performers, including a cantankerous old dog, an articulate fish, a troupe of ants, even Leonard Cohen. There’s also a talking tree, a disappearing nightie and a tube full of agony, along with master chefs and the lives and deaths of people just like you and me - even the death of the apostrophe. This is contemporary poetry at its best, speaking in new voices.’ - Jude Aquilina
978 1 74027 641 2, 90pp, $22.50 BUY NOW

Marilyn Landau
Peaceful Mind
A thoughtful collection of prose, poetry and photographs which shed touching light on the author’s experience of depression.
978 1 74027 486 9, 52pp, $17.50 BUY NOW

Adrian Lane
Southpaw
In this fresh, open and varied collection, Adrian Lane explores and celebrates life’s reversals and paradoxes. The poems travel through the seasons and throughout the hemispheres. Adrian Lane is an Anglican minister who teaches Preaching and Pastoral Care at Ridley Melbourne, Australia. Originally trained in Social Work and Psychology, he worked for the Navy before undertaking further study at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in Massachusetts and Princeton Theological Seminary. He loves people, words, exploring, water and art.
'Adrian Lane has a mastery of plain speaking, but don't think for a moment there is anything plain about the contents. At his best, Lane offers a marvellous variety of ideas and subjects...' - Melbourne Anglican
978 1 74027 533 0, 72pp, $22.50 BUY NOW


Gary Langford
The Family Album & other poems
This is Gary Langford’s twenty-seventh book and his eleventh collection of poetry. The Family Album & other poems is a culminating sequel to two other books of poetry Gary has written on his family - The Family (with coloured photographs), which is his first collection, and Four Ships and other poems, which is his second collection. The Family Album & other poems also contains artwork from three paintings the author has done recently. While he has done graphics before in a few of his books and theatre shows he has directed, this is the first book to use some of his paintings. Gary’s work is serious and comical, commonly at the same time, which is the method he has used in all his work, whether prose, poetry, plays or scripts he has written for the media over the years. His paintings unify visual expression with words. Gary was a teacher writer in Sydney for thirty years and is now a writer artist in Melbourne and Christchurch. Gary Langford Reading From His Poems has been recorded for the Poetry Archives, England, www.poetryarchives.org 2010.
978 1 74027 683 2, 90pp, $22.00 BUY NOW

John Leonard
Braided Lands
In this, his fourth collection, John Leonard continues the dissection of modernity that has characterised his poetry from the beginning. This collection ranges from dense, but compelling, poems, to satirical, but humorous, epigrammatic verse. The poetry passes from ruthless diagnosis to poems where life is transformed by new meaning.
978 1 74027 591 0, 54pp, $20.00 BUY NOW


Helen Lindstrom
Cold Comfort
Helen Lindstrom grew up in Melbourne and now lives in Willaston, South Australia. Her poems have appeared in journals, newspapers and anthologies. In 2006 she won the Nova and Satura prizes for her poem ‘The Tent’. Her themes are feminine and domestic. She writes about growing up, mental illness, love and loss with honesty and compassion and an attention to poetic craft. This edition of Cold Comfort contains several new poems not included in the 2009 edition.
978 1 74027 660 3, 56pp, $22.00 BUY NOW

Stephen Mallick
Just a Moment
Stephen Mallick is a Tasmanian poet and artist. The poems of Just a Moment explore times past, events and memories of childhood and adolescence, the natural world, and the child’s insights into a family in pain. The poems have a rich lyricism, employing subtle rhyme and rhythm rooted in the natural cadences of everyday speech. Deceptively simple, the poems build within the collection to a powerful meditation on the pains, joys and coming-to-terms of growing up.
978 1 74027 532 3, 42pp, $17.50 BUY NOW

Robyn Mathison
To Be Eaten By Mice
‘Robyn Mathison casts a curious and compassionate eye over the natural world and all its inhabitants. Her sense of wonder gives equal measure to cats, hens, historical figures and family members. The poems engage with provocative questions: Where will memory be when my body leaves? (‘Quiet House’’) and arresting imagery: Limbless, he dreams/ music of the spheres echoes/ inside his fragile shell (‘The Would-be Percussionist’).’ - Jane Williams
‘These poems are educated and skilfully executed, but at the same time reverent and thoughtful, which makes for a very enjoyable collection.’ - Studio
‘...some of the finest poems I have read.’ - Poetry Matters
978 1 74027 558 3, 88pp, $20.00 BUY NOW

Deb Matthews-Zott
Shadow Selves
'Shadow Selves draws the reader into the psychic and emotional tussle of contemporary lives. Some of the poems pant with sexual tension. Others ache with frustration and loss. The poetry is always intensely physical.' - Jeri Kroll
'There should be more of this kind of work - the expression of real human experience and ambiguity.' - Cordite
'...the poems in this collection are formed through an unemotional, stark and relatively objective voice that, interestingly enough, almost explicitly deals with hypersensitive, very subjective and emotionally-charged themes and subject matters.' - JAS Review of Books
1 74027 228 5, 72pp, $18.00 BUY NOW

Deb Matthews-Zott
Slow Notes
'The poet's slow notes are her states of intense perception. Exploring the relationships between place and distance, dream and daydream, fullness and emptiness as well as moments ending and not ending. Here’s sensuous poetry often merging taste with touch with sight with smell and, of course, with sounds.' - Graham Rowlands
'Don’t miss out on reading this...' - Independent Weekly, Adelaide
978 1 74027 477 7, 68pp, $18.00 BUY NOW

Joanne McGrath
Affording a View
Joanne McGrath lives and writes in the Southern Highlands of NSW. Her published work includes poetry, short stories and articles. She is married with three grown-up children and a golden retriever.
978 1 74027 400 5, 50pp, $17.50 BUY NOW

Fiona McIlroy
Taste of a Poem
Fiona McIlroy has written poetry ever since she could hold a pencil and do mirror writing with her left hand. She enjoys coaxing people’s dreams into daylight. The Australian landscape has a grip on her, and she has been passionately involved with many conservation groups. The poems take heart from her connection to the land and to a love of life.
978 1 74027 539 2, 56pp, $17.50 BUY NOW

Stephen McInerney
In Your Absence
'This unrushed debut collection reveals a poet in the succession of Lucretius and George Herbert, various, graceful in thought and verbal music, alive to the uncountable dimensions of life and under no compulsion to devalue any.' - Les Murray
'Its demeanour is gentle and unassuming, but its range surprises.' - Canberra Times
'...a fine first book.' - Quadrant
Indigo 1 74027 145 9, 54pp, $18.00 BUY NOW

Max Merckenschlager
Lifemarks
Nature is my palette, my mentor and my mirror. Reflected in natural events and situations I see my own foibles, fancies and follies, and those of fellow humans. Many subjects for my poems are from our natural world – wildlife getting on with the daily task of living – and, often, ourselves interacting with them. Take a peek between the covers. Perhaps you will find elements of self to reflect upon too.
978 1 74027 572 9, 70pp, $18.00 BUY NOW


Max & Jacqui Merckenchlager
Captured Moments
The cameraman snaps, the artist paints and we as writers scribe impressions of our world as we see it. Each moment ends and life moves on. We may recall, but our memories are fickle beasts. They fade and distort with passing time. Photos, paintings and printed words help us to reconstruct and reconsider some moments we felt compelled to capture.
978 1 74027 635 1, 146pp, $24.00 BUY NOW

Yvette Merton
Faces in the Storm
To walk through life as if armed with an internal camera, framing and focusing on the ephemeral moments that lay in the subterfuge of our existence. Taking the opportunity to look through the lens and renegotiate the image. Faces in the Storm is a meditation on the shapes and impressions left behind after both the subtle and the ravaging storms we face as human beings.
978 1 74027 522 4, 70pp, $18.00 BUY NOW

Tim Metcalf
Corvus
'...exhibits a strong intelligence and a broad range of poetic perspective... His polished tentativeness...has a refreshing modesty not commonly found in modern writing.' - JAS Review of Books
1 74027 114 9, 72pp, $16.50 BUY NOW

Tim Metcalf
Cut to the Word
'...writing with intelligence and asperity...wit worth the reading.' - Canberra Times
'All poets write their psyches, but in these revealing vignettes Metcalf does so more than most, and deserves congratulations and thanks for doing so.' - Muse
1 74027 168 8, 63pp, $18.00 BUY NOW

Tim Metcalf
Into the No Zone
The third collection by this startlingly original poet.
'There is excellent work in this collection...' - Muse
Highly commended, ACT Publishing Awards 2004
1 74027 167 X, 76pp, $20.00 BUY NOW

Tim Metcalf (editor)
Verbal Medicine
One hundred poems, a historical sketch and select bibliography record a blossoming of poetry concerned to locate the human firmly at the centre of a clinical world that often has other priorities.
'...invites readers to face the ubiquitous fears of illness, mental imbalance and death with an unflinching sense of empathy and understanding.' - Five Bells
Winner, Poetry, ACT Writing & Publishing Awards 2007
1 74027 369 9, 147pp, $27.50 BUY NOW

Tim Metcalf
The Solution to Us
The fourth stunning collection from this award-winning poet and physician.
Shortlisted, Poetry, ACT Writing & Publishing Awards 2009
978 1 74027 473 9, 96pp, $25.00 BUY NOW

Tim Metcalf
The Effective Butterfly
The fifth collection from this acclaimed poet, a practising physician.
978 1 74027 654 2, 104pp, $35.00 BUY NOW

Anne Walsh Miller
I Love Like a Drunk Does
Anne Walsh Miller’s poems expose the electricity of the eternal that pulses through the livewire of everyday occurrence. I Love Like a Drunk Does assures that from darkness comes the most shadow-splitting light, if you choose it.
978 1 74027 542 2, 46pp, $17.50 BUY NOW

Geoffrey Miller
Behind Closed Eyes
'Geoff Miller's poems take us behind closed eyes, playfully alerting us to our own most precious moments. Miller's honesty, and his deep care for the small but important things too many of us neglect, make this a heartening and optimistic collection.' - Dr Kristen Lang
978 1 74027 577 4, 52pp, $18.00 BUY NOW

John Millett
Circles of Love
Sexual pleasure is explored in this collection – variously, from parental love, through simplicity in early sexual expression, then, passing times of innocence to complex relationships outside the norms of de facto and conventional alliances.
'I can’t think of a recent book of poems which "does" the erotic better than Circles of Love.' - Martin Duwell, australianpoetryreview.com.au
978 1 74027 523 1, 72pp, $18.00 BUY NOW

Anne Morgan
A Reckless Descent from Eternity
‘What is impressive is the ambit of this collection, the way Morgan explores with equal authority the natural world, history, mythology, the vagaries of humankind, and grief. A finely-tuned intelligence shines through these poems, which are lexically rich and jam-packed with precise imagery. Her poems marry the down-to-earth to the numinous; they make evident the breadth of Morgan’s engagement with life and with language, and her passion for fusing the two.’- Kathryn Lomer
978 1 74027 579 8, 74pp, $18.00 BUY NOW

Ann Nadge
Corrugations
Whether they be in China, Cambridge, country Australia or suburban streets, Ann Nadge reflects on and recreates experiences which 'corrugate the heart', leading to moments of insight and new awareness.
1 74027 220 X, 125pp, $20.00 BUY NOW

Ann Nadge
Fence Music
Poems drawing on the intersecting landscapes of memory, travel and reflection. Inspired by John Rose playing a fence at Milparinka, the title poem explores the interplay of landscape and human creativity and fences that join or divide.
1 74027 272 2, 110pp, $22.50 BUY NOW

Ann Nadge
Shifting Light
In her third collection, Ann Nadge explores the ways in which single or cumulative experiences shift the light of our understanding, bringing new insights. Her subject matter ranges from reflections on Florence to a walk in Manly.
1 74027 355 9, 102 pages, $20.00 BUY NOW

Ann Nadge
Occupying Silence
Ann Nadge’s fourth collection. The poems reflect the sometimes subtle, sometimes forceful ways in which perception impacts on the margins of experience and on our understanding of ourselves in time and place.
978 1 74027 471 5, 88pp, $22.00 BUY NOW

Ann Nadge
The Barest Record
‘The barest record is enough.’ At the heart of this collection lies a sequence of poems created by combining verbatim phrases and fragments from the letters of Keats, Shelley, Mary Shelley, Wordsworth, T.E. Lawrence, Wilfred Owen and Virginia Woolf. The letter fragment poems bring the writers’ voices to life, the barest of records from two centuries speaking of love, faith, loss, journeying and war – souls reaching from boundless, solitary places.
978 1 74027 592 7, 86pp, $22.00 BUY NOW


Ann Nadge (editor)
That Which My Eyes See: Words & pictures from Hans Heysen’s The Cedars
‘This delightful compilation of poems by the South Australian Ginninderra Poets serves to continue the acknowledged presence of poetry as an identified and treasured element of family life at The Cedars. The works selected, along with Kevin Stead’s drawings, capture the unique spirit of this very special place.’ - Allan Campbell, Curator of The Cedars
978 1 74027 655 9, 104pp, $20.00 BUY NOW

Christopher Nailer
Blundstones & a Brown Dog
Blundstones & a Brown Dog is about living in the real world with your heart and your eyes wide open. This collection, written over a twenty-five-year period, speaks about the perplexity of simple things: love, death, longing, friendship, hope. Its voice is human, fallible, incomplete. It's about the journey and the dreaming; it's about lives as precious and fragile as fine china.
Highly commended, Poetry, ACT Writing & Publishing Awards 2007
978 1 74027 392 3, 70pp, $18.00 BUY NOW

Christopher Nailer
Peel Street
January, Melbourne, hot midsummer. The holidays fizzle in a kind of endless dryness. A heat haze off the bitumen and the ache of the afternoon sun. A bunch of kids starts grade six at Peel Street School. It’s the high tide of the post-war migrant boom; every term there’s someone new - from England, Ireland, Italy, Greece, Germany, Hungary, Holland, Russia... It’s a magical year, the last year of innocence, a year poised between new growth and the hardening of a tangible future - the last year before adolescence decides who will thrive, who will struggle and who will falter...
978 1 74027 615 9, 64pp, $18.00 BUY NOW

Jill Nevile
A Scent of Pines
‘With this, her first published collection of poetry, Jill Nevile demonstrates that contemporary verse need not be oblique or obscure. She writes with an intriguing and refreshing candour on topics as diverse as her life in Britain, her flirtations with Greece and her love affair with Australia. Writing in both free and traditional verse, Jill conveys her acute observations and unerring eye for detail with great skill. Whether reminiscing on past attachments or celebrating the joy of nature and her surrounds, Jill Nevile’s poetry is clear, succinct and, above all, a pleasure to read.’ - Vic Jefferies
978 1 74027 631 3, 62pp, $18.00 BUY NOW

Tanya Rucosky Noakes
Coyote Love
Tanya Rucosky Noakes was born in the Laurel Highlands of the Appalachians  and grew up on a spiritual diet woven of forest, family and folklore. She currently runs an environmental program in Australia, where she lives on an organic farm with her family.
978 1 74027 554 5, 76pp, $18.00 BUY NOW

Kylie Oakes
Sundance of Shadow
At the age of 14 Kylie Oakes won first and second prizes in a competition offered for juniors by the Sunraysia branch of the Fellowship of Australian Writers. Her legacy consists of poems gathered in chronological order by Kylie herself and others retrieved from desk drawers, computers, manila folders and the magazine Tamba, to which she contributed regularly until her death at the age of thirty-two in 2006.
Winner, Ron Euling Award for Writing 2008
978 1 74027 531 6, 104pp, $22.50 BUY NOW

Moya Pacey
The Wardrobe
'Sit quietly with these poems and you’ll come to know how stillness can come alive with blossom, memory, playfulness, birdsong, companionship, prayer, mystery.' - Peter Bishop, Creative Director, Varuna – The Writers' House
‘...introduces us to a skilful writer whose subjects range without strain from the domestic fantasies that a cocktail cabinet could invite, to Belfast, from the realms of childhood to those of politics.’ - Canberra Times
Highly commended, Poetry, ACT Writing & Publishing Awards 2010
978 1 74027 580 4, 80pp, $20.00 BUY NOW

Geoff Page (editor)
Indigo Book of Modern Australian Sonnets
Almost 200 sonnets written by Australians since 1945.
'...reading was like finding a collection of small gems...a superb selection...' - Muse
'...most definitely worth buying...' - Quadrant
'...fine collection...' - Canberra Times
Winner, Poetry, ACT Publishing Awards 2004
Indigo 1 74027 218 8, 112pp, $20.00 BUY NOW

Ioana Petrescu
Fumigated
'Petrescu has a unique writing style...direct and functional, with no excess anywhere, but still lyrical...a collection worth the read.' - Muse
1 74027 082 7, 79pp, $16.00 BUY NOW

Karen Phillips
Past the Barrier
Barriers to inspiration. Barriers to communication. Barriers to movement and achievement. Barriers that can be passed in one direction only. Many poems in Past the Barrier cross a dividing line of one sort or another. Settings range from the neighbourhood and bush to the ancient world and outer space, taking in a few lost years in Europe along the way. Various poetic forms are explored. Grounded in the poetry of the everyday, the poems display underlying preoccupations: utopia, dystopia and apocalypse; memory, grief and time. Some suggest that the barrier between the living and the dead may be more porous than it seems.
978 1 74027 478 4, 54pp, $17.50 BUY NOW


Poets of Taste
A Poetry Platter
Sample a few poems from this tempting platter of poetry collected from the 2009 harvest at Carlos Restaurant in Watson, North Canberra. The Poets of Taste group was convened by Café Poet in Residence Fiona McIlroy. Poems of the day are displayed on the counter in menu-holders, and the group is now meeting in the same space re-opened as Joey’s Kitchen after the tragic death of the original owner of Carlos. We hope to continue to celebrate the spirit of the local community through poetry for many years to come. So if you believe in the value of fresh local produce…
978 1 74027 690 0, 64pp, $18.50 BUY NOW

R.C. Potter
Past Hell's Portals
A selection of the poetry written by Private Cleve Potter while he was fighting with the AIF's 21st Battalion on the Western Front from 1916 to 1918.
1 74027 054 1, 64pp, $16.00 BUY NOW

Jessica Raschke
Luscious Glass Cage
Jessica Raschke uses words as shards, reflecting fragmented emotional states. Her poems glisten with confidence as they ricochet between the abstract and the deeply felt. But feelings are seen as capable of deception and, like reflections in a mirror, they are reversed and distorted. Despite a strong feeling for ambiguity, Raschke’s poems hold a certain intimacy and the promise of revelation.
978 1 74027 501 9, 38pp, $17.50 BUY NOW

Jessica Raschke
The Beguilings
Enter The Beguilings, a seductive world of striking poems that break through the confines of expectation in love, intimacy and identity. By turns illuminating and provocative, Jessica Raschke's second poetry collection reveals connections and collision points between sensual and spiritual needs. Raschke's writing is testimony to the beautiful truth of emotion and the pleasures of relinquishing control to find release.
978 1 74027 609 2, 42pp, $18.00 BUY NOW

Meredith Rigter
Discourse
Heartfelt poems of love and loss.
978 1 74027 506 4, 46pp, $17.50 BUY NOW

Cynthia Rowe
Driftwood
‘An eclectic collection of poetry from an experienced writer who already has numerous publications to her credit. Now here is a book that reflects the author’s remarkable ability to use the written word as free verse, and in traditional poetic structure. More recently Cynthia Rowe has embraced, with outstanding success, the ancient Japanese forms of haiku, senryu, tanka and haibun, which are extensively represented in this volume. The sentient reader will find much to engage and delight.’ - Quendryth Young, Cloudcatchers
978 1 74027 652 8, 88pp, $22.00 BUY NOW

Ros Schulz
Weight of Evidence
‘Here is the well made poem, flowing lovingly and effortlessly from beneath her fingers. Whether it’s her careful observations of the natural world, reflections on art, collecting stones on the beach, her traveller’s eye or musing on religion and philosophy she is in command of the poem and there is a sure-footedness with the words that make for very satisfying reading. Ros Schulz has been long at work on this very admirable collection and it is wonderful to see it in print at last. The effect on me of the poems she echoes in “Ordinary Geese” as she watches the birds from her car: “At the core of me, a quiet calm”.’ - Jeff Guess
‘...the collection is strong and rewarding... Poetry reading for those both dedicated to the craft and the newcomers.’ - Independent Weekly
978 1 74027 627 6, 108pp, $22.00 BUY NOW

Jim Sharp
Leftside
‘Whetting his expressiveness on the everyday, as in “the waitress”, Jim recognises a significance in what appears to be little more than alienated labour. His own translation from illiteracy into art speaks to his trust that all of life might be transformed through the self-emancipation of his class.’ - Humphrey McQueen
‘He’s made a pen of his boning knife and set about eviscerating cant and claptrap. All that accumulated experience, learning, reflecting, sizing up is the muscle behind that blade filleting the body politic, hauling its carcass up on his butcher’s hook; ‘upside down power! wi trickle down-sizin’/and a billion starving people”.’ - Ray Hearne
‘This is a terrific collection of poetry, because it records a life well-lived in a form that gives us a new way to think through the whole notion of living a life well.’ - Now & Then
978 1 74027 606 1, 116pp, $22.50 BUY NOW

Alice Shore
Birds Dare Not Whisper
Eclectic moments of rural life and diverse people - some infamous - are captured here in poetry sometimes terse, sometimes effusive.
1 74027 323 0, 47pp, $17.50 BUY NOW

Alice Shore
The Prosperous Nation
Are you concerned by globalisation, privatisation, global warming, George W. Bush et al., the new IR laws? If so, these satirical monologues may make you smile or groan, or both.
978 1 74027 426 5, 40pp, $15.00 BUY NOW


Robin Sinclair
The Clouds Go Down To Heaven
Robin Sinclair lives in the Adelaide Hills, where she paints, writes, walks, gardens and observes. She has a husband who makes puppets, a son who has adventures and writes about it, another who writes verse novels, and a daughter who composes music and teaches others to love it. Family habits include writing silly verse at Christmas and reading the dictionary at mealtimes.
978 1 74027 676 4, 76pp, $18.50 BUY NOW

Ian C. Smith
Memory Like Hunger
'Smith sees life and relationships as they really are and is able to express the experience in a poetic form which makes reading poetry a worthwhile experience.' - LiNQ
1 74027 377 X, 72pp, $18.00 BUY NOW

Ian C. Smith
Lost Language of the Heart
A new collection from this widely acclaimed poet.
‘Smith’s poetry is a treat... [The collection is] well gathered, well written and a rewarding journey into that most interesting of landscapes - Australia and of course, the human experience.’ - The Journal
‘...Smith’s talent for bringing characters to life is exceptional.’ - Wet Ink
978 1 74027 600 9, 74pp, $18.50 BUY NOW


Ian C. Smith
Contains Language
‘…recurring themes include loss, memory, regret, failed relationships, loneliness, parenting and aging. While such a catalogue of themes may suggest that the collection is dark and bleak, Smith provides many moments of light and writes in a direct and honest tone that certainly does not create a gloomy atmosphere. Smith’s style is direct, simple and understated. He has a knack for creating similes and metaphors that are vivid and concrete.’ - Transnational Literature
978 1 74027 706 8, 44pp, $18.00 BUY NOW

Melinda Smith
Pushing thirty, wearing seventeen
Lively and varied, this collection rushes the reader headlong through love, grief, outrage, takoyaki, alienation and football.
1 74027 083 5, 56pp, $16.00 BUY NOW

Melinda Smith
Mapless in Underland
'[T]he work of a poet who...deals directly with life as it is. She takes the reader on journeys into the past, through childhood, and across relationships. Her poems have a tenderness of expression and...use the transforming power of imagery to connect with her readers...' - Geoff Page
Commended, ACT Writing & Publishing Awards 2005
1 74027 264 1, 62pp, $17.50 BUY NOW

Robert M. Steley
From Coal Mines to Computers
'The inviting openness of Robert M. Steley's poetry is matched by a capacity to deliver strong doses of the intensity we demand of good poems. From Coal Mines to Computers consistently offers us sharp new perceptions of daily experience, carried by a voice capable of a wide range of moods, from the elegiac to the mischievous.' - Ross Gillett
978 1 74027 582 8, 70pp, $18.00 BUY NOW

Rita Summers
Chairs Abandoned In Odd Corners
This first major collection of the author’s work represents a cross-section of poems written at different periods in her life. The photographs which illustrate the book, taken by the poet around her home in Tasmania, are an attempt to express the isolation often felt by individuals who are deeply sensitive to their surroundings and who seek answers to the often unexplainable events which threaten to overwhelm them. The poems themselves, like prayers, speak, whisper, shout or scream in response to different situations.
978 1 74027 462 3, 54pp, $17.50 BUY NOW

Gillian Telford
Moments of Perfect Poise
'Gillian Telford's poems deliver what the title of her collection suggests. Always mindful, often subtle in their argument and surprising in their intensity, these poems display a range of moods, attitudes and technical approaches to her subjects. Telford is alert to the nuanced signals between people: she can memorably convey family and other social dynamics, and she’s an enviable practitioner of tanka and other forms practised by her admired models.' - Michael Sharkey
'Like the restless circling of the ice skater in "The Rush", these poems have the glide and weave of deep contemplation, the sharp-edge turns of acute perception, and the lifting skirt of a playful sensuality. Throw in an empathetic, artistic eye and the wisdom to seek, in particulars, every truth we need to establish, and you have all the makings of deeply pleasurable poetry.' - Judy Johnson
978 1 74027 507 1, 74pp, $18.00 BUY NOW

Michael Thorley
Sleeping Alone
'Michael Thorley's poetry combines wit and emotional depth. His ability to handle both traditional and free verse forms is subtle but very impressive and his range is broad and deep.' - Suzanne Edgar
'...full of taut, sharply observed poems... Thorley works with assurance in a variety of verse forms...' - Canberra Times
Winner, Poetry, ACT Writing & Publishing Awards 2009
Indigo 978 1 74027 498 2, 76pp, $20.00 BUY NOW

Julie Thorndyke
rick rack
This collection of tanka affords the attentive reader a dialogue with the author which is both intimate and universal; a glimpse of the inner world of this sensitive poet and a commentary on the joys and tribulations of human existence. rick rack offers poems of grief and vulnerability, joy and humour, passion and resignation, and the conscious acceptance of transience. Julie Thorndyke's commitment to this genre has earned her international recognition. She is among the leading poets writing tanka in Australia today.
'...you will enjoy it and be moved by it.' - Denis M. Garrison, Modern English Tanka
‘These warm, spare tanka move exquisitely between memory, imagination and emotion...’ - Kokako
978 1 74027 524 5, 58pp, $17.50 BUY NOW

Julie Thorndyke
Carving Granite
‘Each carefully crafted poem in this collection blends sensitivity with realism. Julie Thorndyke writes with an original and spirited voice that addresses contemporary themes, while paying due regard to tanka traditions.’ - Beverley George, Editor Eucalypt: a tanka journal
‘In this new collection, Julie Thorndyke demonstrates her mastery of the short form poetry we know as tanka. She has an innate sense of rhythm in her writing and, with her skilled use of figurative language, brings us moments that sometimes defy interpretation yet pierce to the bone.’ - Carole MacRury, Secretary/Treasurer, Tanka Society of America
‘Julie Thorndyke's second tanka collection more than fulfils the promise of her first, rick rack. In Carving Granite she reveals the light and shade of her world.’ - Amelia Fielden, poet and translator
978 1 74027 672 6, 72pp, $18.50 BUY NOW
Karen Throssell
The Old King
'...a great debut from a poet who, from the outset, commands attention with her honesty, psychological insight and her emotional assurance.' - John Jenkins
'...powerful work...' - Muse
1 74027 183 1, 72pp, $18.00 BUY NOW

Karen Throssell
Remembering How to Cry
Karen Throssell expands on the work for which she was praised in The Old King.
'Karen Throssell undoubtedly has promising talent as a writer.' - Reviews in Australian Studies
1 74027 265 X, 63pp, $17.50 BUY NOW

Sarah Tiffen
Learning Country
Poems which vividly evoke the landscape of the Riverina area.
1 74027 334 6, 76pp, $18.00 BUY NOW

Sarah Tiffen
Mythica
Sarah Tiffen's second collection continues to probe the spiritual and social themes revealed in her first book, Learning Country. Stories of her home country, in the western plains of New South Wales, reveal a powerful response to place and a visceral sense of nostalgia, landscape and love.
1 74027 371 0, 72pp, $18.00 BUY NOW

Sarah Tiffen
The Light Breaks Open
Sarah Tiffen's third book of poetry is full of the sensual imagery and textured observations for which she is becoming known. The sense of place and people resonates in these stories of life and love, connection to land, the struggle to survive, to belong, to reconcile. Here is Australian work, exploring Australian themes, familiar, yet renewed.
978 1 74027 495 1, 50pp, $17.50 BUY NOW

Leon Trainor
Before Afterwards
Leon Trainor's fourth collection of poems. It spans major events in his life, including the early years of his marriage and experience of Europe, a crisis of love and faith and the final illness and death of his wife. The collection culminates in the poet's encounters with Asia through his work and travels in the region. Trainor captures those circumstances that had a profound impact on him. Such moments, often found in the small events of daily life, are full of wonderment and beauty. They continue to the present day.
'Trainor is in the first rank of Australian poets writing today.' - Ann Nugent, Blast
Winner, Poetry, ACT Writing & Publishing Awards 2010
Indigo 978 1 74027 568 2, 72pp, $20.00 BUY NOW

Tuggeranong WORD Group
Postcards from Canberra
A diverse collection of poems and stories by Peter Burbrook, Helen Cunningham, June Foster and Daphne Hargreaves.
1 74027 270 6, 128pp, $22.50 BUY NOW

Bill Tully
Manuka & Beyond
Bill Tully has lived in Canberra for over forty years as a student, librarian, political/arts activist and retiree. He has worked with many groups and journals from Canberra Community News to Voice, and has broadcast on Radio 2XX FM 98.5 from 1976. The poems collected here were written in 2009 and 2010.
978 1 74027 634 4, 66pp, $18.50 BUY NOW


Bill Tully
Canberra & Beyond
Bill Tully has lived over two-thirds of his life in Canberra. In retirement he rages, ranges and reviews life as country boy in Victoria’s western district, mill worker in Mount Gambier, clerk in Melbourne and librarian and political activist in Canberra. Some of this gets into his second poetry collection, written in 2010 and 2011.
978 1 74027 688 7, 70pp, $18.50 BUY NOW

Ken Vincent
No Shoes & the Day Was Freezing
A collection of poems drawing on the author’s personal work experience and from many years of observing some of the more tragic aspects of our society. Some of the poems are written in the voice of a social worker, others in the voice of the client. All paint a picture of personal disadvantage and tragedy. In these days of blame and shame it is easy to dismiss, the criminal, the drug addicted, the violent, without remembering that they are also victims.
978 1 74027 549 1, 54pp, $17.50 BUY NOW


Valerie Volk
A Promise of Peaches
It was an act of simple kindness for an Australian couple to take two Czech refugees from post World War II Europe into their working-class home. They could never have foreseen the tensions these sophisticated Europeans would create, or the life-changing impact they would have on their teenage daughter. A Promise of Peaches explores sympathetically the culture clashes of 1950s immigration, not unlike those of today, and shows with sensitivity the unfolding of adolescent sexuality.
‘A Promise of Peaches is a thoughtful and deeply compassionate examination in verse of female adolescence and cultural tensions in Melbourne in the early 1950s. Valerie Volk has the reader sympathising almost equally with all her main protagonists, despite the steadily mounting conflicts between them. Mutual incomprehension between and within the “old” Australians and the “new” is dramatically portrayed and its climactic resolution persuasively drawn.’ - Geoff Page
‘I read this manuscript in one sitting, without pause, a testimony to its readability and its inherent interest... A verse novel has proved ideal for the task: the work is compressed and the form suits the intensity of the subject... The climax, when the adolescent Claire begins her sexual awakening in response to Viktor, is handled with tact and expertly delineates the responses of the two. The triumph of the novel is this respect for all the main characters - even Irena, who could be a standard “femme fatale”.’ - Thomas Shapcott (Professor Emeritus of Creative Writing, University of Adelaide)
‘…worthy of joining such recognised Australian examples of this genre as Les Murray’s 1980 The Boys Who Stole the Funeral, John Tranter’s 1992 The Floor of Heaven, and Dorothy Porter’s 2007 El Dorado.’ - InDaily
978 1 74027 656 5, 168pp, $25.00 BUY NOW


Brian Wattchow
The Song of the Wounded River
Two and a half thousand kilometres. Seventy days. A poet makes a long journey by canoe down Australia's greatest river. Along the way he searches for words in the water, sentences upon the sandy banks, phrases in the forest. The Song of the Wounded River reveals a place that is both beautiful and damaged, resilient and fragile. Perhaps, if we can learn to sing the River, we may just find that we have the collective will to save it.
978 1 74027 608 5, 104pp, $22.50 BUY NOW

Alan Watts
My Mind a Squash Court
The abstract of a squash court, the theme of one of his poems, is indicative of the way that Alan likes to think of the ideas 'bouncing' around in his mind. This leads to a wide range of topics and a freshness in his poetry.
978 1 74027 490 6, 76pp, $18.00 BUY NOW

Maurice Whelan
The Lilac Bow
A rich and evocative collection from the author of the acclaimed novel Boat People.
978 1 74027 557 6, 58pp, $17.50 BUY NOW


Maurice Whelan
Excalibur’s Return
If stillness can be tasted, precious memories will return, such as poetry once learned by heart, which in Maurice Whelan’s case told of King Arthur receiving his sword Excalibur from the maiden in the lake. If silence can be heard, a poetry in life will breathe, as in this poet’s observation about a dawn which ‘...holds/its perfection/as long/as you hold your breath’. As contrast to a hurried world, Maurice finds a treasury in stillness - Gaelic melodies in the twilight of his mind, his wandering in the slipstream of a silent father’s dreams, and from a wonderful ‘Perfect Pitch’ - his reassuring knowing that ‘the bow is on the string/fingers caress keys, eyes/are closing and heaven’s gate/is opening once again’. This beautiful anthology combines nostalgia for times past, gratitude for nature’s riches and a psychoanalyst’s characteristically sharp insights into personal relationships: ‘I wasn’t staring/I saw my youth in you./That’s all.’ His skill in crafting apparently effortless lines, seldom interrupted by commas, semicolons or full stops, conceals the challenge of holding a pen and facing a blank page. ‘Sometimes/finding the right word/is like drilling through concrete/with a jackhammer.’ There’s a brave frankness in such an admission but the poetry which then emerges has been conceived from the peace in silence, the reflection and recall made possible by stillness. No wonder that, on a front page, before his own work begins, Maurice quotes Hazlitt: ‘Poetry...is not a branch of authorship: it is the stuff of which our life is made.’ - Stuart Rees
978 1 74027 693 1, 54pp, $18.00 BUY NOW

Terry Whitebeach
All the Shamans Work in Safeway
From country Tasmania to the Kimberley, through Central Australia to the pueblos of New Mexico, from Alaska to Antarctica and back again, the everyday shamans of this world have been discovered, living their 'ordinary' magical lives. The poet shape-shifts the language of home, work and school and transforms its joys and despairs, its hopes and humour into celebratory verse.
1 74027 366 4, 61pp, $17.50 BUY NOW

Jane Williams
Begging the Question
'With their seeking out of common ground between strangers, mothers and daughters, friends and lovers, Jane Williams's poems are full of warmth and delight in being alive. Bullies, funerals and "business as usual" exist here, but so too does the possibility of being "surprised by joy". The language is beautifully sparse and understated, hitting home with sudden images which are startling and powerful. Begging the Question is a book to keep by the bed and read again and again. Its grace and clarity make the world feel a better place.' - Jean Kent
978 1 74027 475 3, 56pp, $17.50 BUY NOW

Mark Willing
Spirit Level
Mark Willing lives in Melbourne, where he works as a teacher. His poetry has been published in magazines and journals including Verandah, Small Packages, Five Bells, Centoria and Blue Dog.
978 1 74027 704 4, 72pp, $18.50 BUY NOW

Stephen Matthews Ginninderra Press PO Box 3461 Port Adelaide 5015
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