Issue 38 – 2023:3 has been archived
We have archived Issue 38 of Rochford Street Review, and it is now available, along the all other issues stretching back to 2011, on our Previous Issues page
Issue 38
Playful complexity: Mark Roberts reviews ‘Flying North for Winter’ by Pete Spence
Pete Spence is a poet/artist who stands, for the most part, outside the mainstream of Australian poetry. Over decades Spence has built up a considerable body of work, most of it appearing in small independent magazines and in books and chapbooks published by small presses. Which brings us to his 2022 chapbook Flying North for Winter, published by now orries press.
Those guys have been on fire: Ben Sando reports on Peter Bakowski and Ken Bolton’s linked sequence of four books
I’ve been reading the four Bakowski-and-Bolton books. Those guys have been on fire! I especially like the poems with crazy conceits.
Humour and humanity: Jennifer Harrison launches ‘Poetry of Home: The Liquid Amber Prize Anthology’
I was not prepared for the humour and humanity of these poems. Their sheer excellence.
Awakening our rage: Rosemary Nissen-Wade reviews ‘Witches, Women and Words’ by Beatriz Copello
Unacquainted with Beatriz Copello’s work before (but eager now to catch up) I was drawn to this book because I’m both a poet and a witch
Maeve McKenna – 6 Poems from ‘Body as a Home for This Darkness’
Maeve McKenna lives in Sligo, Ireland. Her work has appeared in Mslexia, Rattle, Banshee, The Stony Thursday Book and elsewhere. Maeve’s debut pamphlet, A Dedication to Drowning, was published in February 2022. Body as a Home for this Darkness, her second pamphlet, was published in September 2023.
Breakages are part of the story: Rosanna Licari launches ‘Seams of Repair’ by Stephanie Green
Stephanie Green is a versatile and accomplished writer. Not only has she published criticism, screen studies and biography as a university lecturer, she has also written in various genres such as poetry, short fiction, creative non-fiction and travel essays in literary magazines, anthologies and journals, most recently in Live Encounters, StylusLit, Axon, Meniscus and Queensland Review.
Esther Ottaway 5 Poems
Esther Ottaway has won or been shortlisted for the Tom Collins, MPU International, Montreal, Bridport, Woorilla, Mslexia, Queensland Poetry Festival Ekphrasis and other prizes.
Sightlines at work: Alice Wanderer reviews ‘This Overflowing Light’ by Rin Ishigaki
Opening this book at random, I reread a poem that seems simply to capture an idyllic moment. The poet stands on a steamship, an apple in her hand.