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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
ABC News
27-07-2025
- Entertainment
- ABC News
Ozzy Osbourne - the melodic voice of Black Sabbath, and announcing poetry and lyric competition Middle of the Air
Nicole Smede is a proud Warrimay woman with Irish ancestry, whose bio includes poet, musician, singer and composer. She's on The Music Show to talk about how all of these things have come to intersect in her work, and about the joy and strength she's found in writing across forms and languages. Nicole is a current participant of the Ngarra Burria First Peoples Composers Program, and is also the First Nations Artistic Director at Red Room Poetry. As part of this interview we announce an exciting partnership between ABC Radio National and Red Room Poetry. It's a poetry competition called Middle of the Air , where two lucky poets will have their winning poems set to music and recorded by DOBBY and Leah Senior. Entries open 1 August, find more details here. You can register for a free lyric writing workshop with Leah Senior and DOBBY on 6 August here. And we remember Black Sabbath's enigmatic frontman Ozzy Osbourne, who died this week at the age of 76. Joel Silbersher is our guide - he's a Melbourne-based guitarist and a songwriter, having played across a bunch of different bands since the 1980s including GOD, Hoss and with Tex Perkins. Joel explains, while not a great lyric writer, Ozzy was a "genius melodist", and Black Sabbath's influence on rock, metal and alternative music cannot be overstated. Music in this program: Title: Black Sabbath Artist: Black Sabbath Composer: Bill Ward, Geezer Butler, Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Iommi Album: Black Sabbath Label: Vertigo Title: Changes Artist: Black Sabbath Composer: Bill Ward, Geezer Butler, Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Iommi Album: Black Sabbath Vol. 4 Label: Vertigo Title: Paranoid [Early Demo Version] Artist: Black Sabbath Composer: Bill Ward, Geezer Butler, Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Iommi Title: Paranoid Artist: Black Sabbath Composer: Bill Ward, Geezer Butler, Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Iommi Album: Paranoid Label: Vertigo Title: N.I.B. Artist: Black Sabbath Composer: Bill Ward, Geezer Butler, Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Iommi Album: Black Sabbath Label: Vertigo Title: War Pigs Artist: Black Sabbath Composer: Bill Ward, Geezer Butler, Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Iommi Album: Paranoid Label: Vertigo Title: Sabbra Cadabra Artist: Black Sabbath Composer: Bill Ward, Geezer Butler, Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Iommi Album: Sabbath Bloody Sabbath Label: Vertigo Title: Too Much Sugar Artist: Hoss Composer: Joel Silbersher Album: You Get Nothing Label: Dog Meat Title: No More Tears Artist: Ozzy Osbourne Composer: Ozzy Osbourne, Zakk Wylde, Mike Inez, Randy Castillo, John Purdell Album: No More Tears Label: Epic Title: Tower - for Frank Gehry Artist: The Hallé, conducted by Thomas Adès Composer: Thomas Adès Album: Adès, Marsey and Leith Label: Hallé Concerts Society Title: Gugara Kuragia Artist: Nicole Smede Composer: Nicole Smede Recording supplied by the composer Title: Djeera Gadhu (Ocean Stories) Artist: Ensemble Offspring Composer: Nicole Smede ABC recording, supplied by the composer Title: The Silence of Thunder (A Hidden River) Artist: Nicole Smede Composer: Nicole Smede Recording supplied by the composer The Music Show was made this week on Gadigal Land.
Sydney Morning Herald
12-06-2025
- Politics
- Sydney Morning Herald
Why Australia's top barrister is working for the Russians
Australia's best barrister is taking a paycheck from the Russian government. Bret Walker SC is representing the Russian Federation, who is challenging the constitutional validity of the Albanese government's 2023 laws which cancelled Moscow's lease on an embassy site next door to Parliament House. Your columnist, meanwhile, remains sanctioned by Russia since Vladimir Putin's 2022 invasion of Ukraine, along with dozens of other journalists, and is thus banned from the country. All that history aside, CBD isn't here to take Novichok-laced pot-shots at anyone. We're all entitled to good legal representation, of course. And barristers are bound by the cab rank rule, which obligates them to take any brief that pulls up outside their chambers, so long as it matches their expertise, they have capacity, and the prospective client, however objectionable, can pay. Loading In the case of Walker, who commands daily fees reputedly north of $25,000, those cabs tend to be Rolls-Royces. The Sydney silk has worked on a long list of high-profile cases before the country's top court, including the late Cardinal George Pell's successful appeal against child sex abuse convictions. Despite his work for the Russians, Walker won't have to register as a foreign agent, unlike former prime minister Tony Abbott and Kevin Rudd, who've both reluctantly landed on the foreign influence transparency register because of their past speaking and business engagements with other nations. The legislation has an exemption for anyone providing legal representation. Outside the courtroom, our learned friend has been leaning into his creative side. CBD has learnt that Walker is an official supporter of Poetry Month, the national event run by Red Room Poetry. This year Poetry Month runs from July 30 to September 3, which we are sure the legally pedantic side of Walker would quickly point out is indeed not a month, but his renaissance man side would acknowledge is fittingly poetically messy. Short-staffed
