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The Guardian
30-07-2025
- Entertainment
- 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
The Guardian
30-06-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Taboo relationships, steamy affairs and delicious desserts: the best Australian books out in July
Nonfiction, Ultimo, $36.99 Relationships between university professors and their students often aren't explicitly against the rules – but they aren't quite right, either. For her second nonfiction book, Madison Griffiths spent a year interviewing four women who'd had relationships with their university teachers to hear how they feel about those romances now (spoiler alert: not good!) and explore the ethics around them. It's a personal topic for Griffiths: at age 21 she began dating her former uni tutor, a romance that, now aged 31, she has complicated feelings about. Don't expect linear narratives; instead Griffiths has produced academic and often poetic meditations on sex, power and desire. – Katie Cunningham Fiction, Allen & Unwin, $32.99 A summer in Athens? Check. Millennial malaise? Check. A steamy affair that upends everything? Check. Amy Taylor's second novel has all the hallmarks of popular contemporary fiction, imbued with her signature tenderness and intelligence. London couple Emma and Julian are at a crossroads, and welcome the younger Lena into their relationship. Her presence teases out some tricky questions, all while the stifling Greek heat reaches feverish, claustrophobic heights. Taylor mixes literary musings with juicy plot twists and plenty of interpersonal drama – this is a moreish reading experience, the type of book you'll want to gulp down in one breathless sitting. – Giselle Au-Nhien Nguyen Fiction, Giramondo, $32.95 Raaza Jamshed's debut novel is short in length but layered with complex meaning. The narrative opens in death – literal and figurative – captured through the image of eucalyptus trees, which Jahan, the novel's protagonist, has been told will regenerate. But, despite her pleas, no signs of life emerge from the seeds that she has painstakingly cared for. This opening holds the promise of the novel as a whole – the deep poetry of the language, the complexity of the setting (under threat from bushfire), and the central themes of loss and regeneration. A powerful, promising new voice. – Bec Kavanagh Cookbook, Hardie Grant, $60 If you don't recognise Christopher Thé by name, you may recognise his famous creation: Black Star Pastry's strawberry watermelon cake, or 'Australia's most Instagrammed cake' as the New York Times called it in 2019. Thé sold Black Star Pastry six years ago, opening Sydney cafe Hearthe with a new focus on baking with native Australian ingredients. These 80 intricate recipes reflect his latest creations. There's saltbush scones with desert lime marmalade, Illawarra plum clafoutis, Geraldton wax cheesecake and 'flowering' wattleseed biscuits. Though there are easier projects, such as his 12-year-old daughter's choc chip biscuits, it's best suited to a confident baker. Those up to the challenge of making layered paperbark cake, with smoked chocolate ganache and blue gum salted caramel, will be rewarded with MasterChef-worthy desserts proudly rooted in Australian flavours. – Emma Joyce Fiction, Black Inc, $36.99 Moreno Giovannoni's The Immigrants is an intensely personal story following members of one Italian family living and working in Australia. After arriving from Tuscany in the mid-1950s, Ugo is determined to make the most of the plentiful work opportunities in agriculture. His wife, Morena, who is supposed to stay in Italy and wait for Ugo to return, sails to 'the colony' to be with her husband. The pair move to rural Victoria, grow tobacco, and are surrounded by a vibrant community of fellow immigrants. This book is written with such tenderness and clarity, you'll be instantly drawn into the suffering and joy of these lives. – Joseph Cummins Fiction, Ultimo, $34.99 Katherine Brabons' Cure explores the social aspects of illness in the family with reflective poise. Vera and her adolescent daughter Thea both experience chronic pain and fatigue. Vera has an ambivalent relationship to traditional medicines, turning to an online community for possible cures and symptom relief, while Thea retreats into the private world of her journal. In this gentle and unassuming narrative, the pair journey to Italy to seek an obscure man who promises to heal people of their illnesses – a trip Vera has taken before. Capturing the difficult intimacies between a mother and daughter, Cure questions the stories they tell about their bodies, wellness, healing and memory. – Isabella Gullifer-Laurie Fiction, Penguin, $34.99 Chloe Adams' debut novel draws on a seam of family history stretching back to the second world war and its brutal Pacific front. Twenty-nine-year-old Mary escapes looming spinsterhood and the banality of middle-class female life by enlisting as part of Australia's postwar operations in Japan. The novel opens in 1949 with Mary back home in Melbourne, pregnant but unmarried, then cuts to a year earlier as she arrives in Hiroshima prefecture. Adams' writing is assured and absorbing as she conjures this new world through Mary's eyes, and her interior life as illusions are eroded. Seventy-five pages in, it's looking promising. – Dee Jefferson Fiction, Allen & Unwin, $32.99 Your Friend and Mine is a sliding doors story in which Margot, a fortysomething restaurateur, is unexpectedly lifted out from her routine when a letter from a long-dead friend arrives. The letter from Tess, Margot's best friend 20 years prior, transports her to a time when their lives had seemed rich and full of potential. As a stipulation (or a provocation, perhaps) of her will, Tess invites Margot on a fully funded trip to the UK to meet her old friend's family, and to finish Tess's bucket list. Jessica Dettmann's third novel balances humour and pathos with ease, as Margot undertakes a journey to reconnect with her old friend, and herself. – BK
