Tiny moments of life: Hazel Hall reviews ‘Bitumen Psalms’ by Lizz Murphy
Lizz Murphy’s latest collection, Bitumen Psalms is a collection of short song-poems in a tiny book exploring ‘tiny’ moments of life.
Books
The violence of erasure: Les Wicks launches ‘The Office of Literary Endeavours’ by Mark Roberts
The poetry is carefully crafted and elegant. The subject matter is wide ranging… richly brought to life within the forms Roberts has chosen. Reading through this collection has been a privilege and a delight.
A world nicely shaped in microcosm: Eamonn Wall launches ‘Life Itself’ by Kevin Higgins
Thank you for inviting me to speak at the launch of Life Itself. It is an immense honor. And thank you for editing Life Itself and guiding its journey into the world. And kudos to Salmon Poetry, to Jessie Lendennie and Siobhán Hutson Jeanotte, for making this gorgeous book.
A heady cocktail of past and present: Maurice Devitt launches ‘A Storm in Arcadia’ by Ron Carey
It is a real honour to be asked to launch the collection as I’ve been a great friend and admirer of Ron’s poetry since we first met over 10 years ago and I’ve really enjoyed watching the dramatic development of his work since then. Ron’s first collection in 2015 was the now iconic Distance
The sheer joy of immersion: Magdalena Ball launches ‘100 Poets’ edited by Brian Purcell
It was Brian Purcell who suggested we might celebrate our 100th book with an anthology of 100 authors. To reward Brian for his great idea, he got the massive and thankless task of editor. The resulting anthology is a treasure and a testament to both Brian’s tenacity in herding the many Flying Island cats—some, whose works stretch right back to the early days of 2010 and some slotted for future publication, gathering, collating, nagging, proofreading, and finally presenting the fine collection here.
Words of passion and insight: Alana Kelsall launches ‘The Heart of the Advocate’ by Angela Costi
I really enjoyed the way in which the chronological order of the collection reflects the evolution of Angela’s thinking and her response to the moral issues she’s been confronted with when she was a practising lawyer.
Filled with unsuspected riches: Jordi Doce’s preface to ‘A altas horas de la madrugada/ In the small hours’ by Peter Boyle
Poet and translator of poets, Peter Boyle (Melbourne, Australia, 1951) began publishing relatively late — he broke the ice at the age of 42 with his book Coming Home from the World — but since then he has not looked back, completing more than 11 poetry books and being equally prolific and generous as a translator of Spanish-language poets.
Poetry of place, and travels of the heart: Sarah St Vincent Welch launches ‘Bitumen Psalms’ by Lizz Murphy
A new confidence in expressive possibilities: Lucy Dougan launches ‘The Hum Hearers’ by Shey Marque
Shey has a distinguished track-record of short-listings and publications. The Hum Hearers was short-listed for the Dorothy Hewett Award, individual poems have been noticed in the Gwen Harwood Poetry Prize, the Woorilla Poetry Prize and the Bruce Dawe Poetry Prize, among others.
Rochford Street Review 