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The Guardian

Australian Poetry Month: 10 essential Australian collections that will change how you read

Australian poetry is having a(nother) moment – one that's been generations in the making. This list isn't about ranking or canon-building, but about spotlighting collections that crack language open, unsettle expectations, and echo long after the last line. From poetic noir, epic love lines and jazz-inflected dreamscapes to sovereign storytelling and lyrical confrontations with history, these books remind us of poetry's unmatched ability to hold truth, tension, and transformation. As the artistic directors of Australian poetry non-profit Red Room Poetry, we read (and hear) a lot of poems – but these are some of the ones that keep speaking back to our whole team, many of whom are poets themselves. Whether you're a seasoned reader, a newcomer to verse, or simply someone chasing meaning in a chaotic world, these collections offer something vital. You won't read the same way again. (2015, $25, Giramondo) One of the greatest demonstrations of poetry as truth-telling, Inside My Mother tells of the impact of dispossession and the Stolen Generations. It is a work of startling clarity and originality, a masterclass in just how much a single poem can hold and the ways in which poetry as a form can compress a vast span of time across multiple generations. Much like the desert, Eckermann's poems – which won her the $215k Windham-Campbell award in 2017 – may at first seem sparse, but are in fact brimming with energy, story, and wisdom. (2000, $22.99, Picador Australia) The lesbian neo-noir detective novel in verse you didn't know you needed, The Monkey's Mask is a gripping read that won many awards when it was published in 1994. Hardboiled private investigator Jill Fitzpatrick investigates the disappearance of a young poet, becoming ensnared in a tangled web of deceit and passion. A compelling example of what cross-genre writing can achieve, filled with grit and richly drawn (if despicable) characters; 30 years later, it's still as sharp and brilliant as a fistful of glass. (2022, $24.99, UQP) There are few books that have grappled with the ever-shifting layers of grief that come after the loss of a loved one with such beauty, care, and precision as this collection, documenting the death of Holland-Batt's father following a struggle with Parkinson's. One of only two poetry collections to win the Stella prize, Holland-Batt's universal, lyrical, and elegiac poetry showcases what the form can do; this is a deep invitation into the human experience. (2004, $24.95, UQP) Watson's jazz-inflected rhythms cruise the open roads of Brisbane and beyond in this collection, which reads like a Dreamtime-inflected noir; the evocative cinematics of his haibun – a Japanese literary form combining prose and haiku – adaptations paint haunting images across the Australian imagination and cultural narratives that shape how we understand ourselves and this nation. Situated somewhere between the urban and the mythological, Smoke Encrypted Whispers flexes a gritty lyricism that leaves the reader wondering about the unfinished business on this continent. (1989, $24.99, Magabala) Story About Feeling shows us that connecting with Country can be as easy as breathing. Part oral poem, part philosophical treatise on land, spirit, and kinship, this assemblage of long verse offers a profound culture-story to anyone willing to 'listen slow'. Including reproductions of bark paintings and artwork, Neidjie speaks beyond the lines on the page, reminding us that knowledge is felt rather than owned and that feeling itself is a kind of Indigenous lore. (2004, $27.99, Allen and Unwin) 'We were falling towards each other already / and the utter abandon to orbits was delicious'. Whether it's the epic title poem – a free-versed sonnet form in breathless pursuit of ecstasy and the mystical – or the 40 shorter pieces that follow which untangle love and its aftermaths, this collection still rings the heart's bell 20 years after its release. This book is one best read naked (literally or metaphorically) – or directly to that someone who gets under your skin the way that lines like these will. (1946, Meanjin Press) Who doesn't love a train poem? Wright's The Moving Image has one of the best, among many that have been anthologised and studied across the years. There is a formality about this 1946 collection, imposing an order on scenes and emotions that resist it. Reading this collection alongside Phantom Dwelling, published 40 years later, shows a poet willing to challenge her younger self and confront the colonial settler myths and falsehoods that she grew up believing. ($27.99, 2018, Magabala) BlakWork is a poetic thunderclap. Whittaker, a Gomeroi poet and legal scholar, cracks language open like a geode, revealing its sharp luminous edges and shapeshifting form: memoir into resistance, rhythm sharpened by lore. It's sovereign storytelling, demanding readers to reckon with history, politics, love and power. If you're building a shelf of poetry that matters, BlakWork doesn't just belong on it – it defines it, rupturing the canon with protest, precision and unflinching craft. ($26.99, 2024, Simon & Schuster) As if writing one of Australia's most beloved contemporary short story collections - The Boat - wasn't enough, Le turned to poetry in this acclaimed follow-up that recently won the NSW Book of the Year award. Urgent and unsettling – both in its documentation of the Vietnamese-Australian diaspora and its innovative use of language and form – this is a work that shifts you as a reader through its interrogation of identity, family, racism and the possibilities and limitations of poetry. ($34.95, 2024, NewSouth) Sometimes framed as a gateway drug, poetry anthologies offer the casual (and committed) reader a sample of what is being produced across an ever-expanding and diverse art form. The annual BoAP series is a great entry point into contemporary Australian poetry and the most recent edition is one of the finest in the series, full of established and emerging voices such as Omar Sakr, Madison Griffiths, Manisha Anjali, Grace Yee, Andy Jackson, Ouyang Yu, Jeanine Leane, Scott-Patrick Mitchell, Sara M Saleh and Jill Jones. Australian Poetry Month runs throughout August, brought to you by Red Room Poetry. Find out more here Do you have a favourite Australian poetry book that wasn't mentioned here? Please share it in the comments