A Journal of Australian & International Cultural Reviews, News and Criticism.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
We met because of poems; I submitted three to The Burning Bush, a journal Kevin was starting with Mike Begnal, at the very start of 1999. Our love affair was bookended by January verse.
Since its founding in 1986 by Ron Pretty, Five Islands Press has been a lighthouse for poets and readers sailing in the variable waters of Australian poetry.