Joanna Preston: Tasmanaut Poet
I do love Mary Oliver's poems, but I'm always nervous when I start reading a new collection. Her writing is becoming ever more stripped back, and relies on the rightness of her observations, rather than dazzling bravado with imagery. But there are plenty of exceptions to that rule, especially in her earlier poems. One that …
Continue reading "Mary Oliver, appositives, and fossicking through “Aunt Leaf”"
I was sent a link to an interesting couple of articles about book reviewing, and where it can all go so horribly wrong. Start with Jeremiah Chamberlin's preliminary post on the concept of The Good Review. Read it, then come back. I'll wait. (Don't I always?) Then there's Charles Baxter on that classic Amazon-style me-fest, …
Continue reading "Owls, reviews, and thoughts about The End(s) of Criticism"
It's that time of year again, when those of us with a yen towards Romantic poetry (Byron & Wordsworth, NOT Mills & Boon) start feverishly pacing up and down the leafless lanes attempting to compose a poem on a Romantic theme for the Keats-Shelley Memorial Association's annual International Poetry Competition. Actually it's two competitions – …
Continue reading "2011 Keats-Shelley Association Competition – “Glass”"
Back from my trip to the 2011 Auckland Writers & Readers Festival. I had a great time, and was utterly amazed by the scale of the organisation. I knew it was big, but according to one of my drivers (yes, they even have a team of drivers who whisk authors from airport to hotel to …
Continue reading "Auckland, Amazement, and why a Red Coat is a Good Thing"
Just back from my trip to the deep South as part of the Southland Arts Festival. I had an absolute ball. The events I was part of were organised through the Dan Davin Foundation, which does a fabulous job of promoting literature in Southland. The reading (‘Poetry in the Stack’) was first, and I was sharing …
A Dark Feathered Art 