My poetry in the real world

It’s been a while since I updated my publications page, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t been busy sending stuff out. Well, actually, I’ve been busy waiting for journals and magazines to respond to my submissions. All writers know this drill: in fact, I know of about 300 submissions to Cordite that I’m currently unable to respond to, due to our email being on the jitch.

Nevertheless, things have been happening. My (list) poem ‘new space seasons’ was published last year in FourW, the journal of the Wagga Wagga Writers Writers (or whatever they call themselves now). Editor for the issue was Derek Motion, whose selections were at once bold, engaging, eccentric and a lot of fun. Another list poem, ‘Travelling Types’, was published in the last issue of Overland to feature John Leonard as editor (an interview with whom will soon appear on the Cordite site).

‘Snowy’, a poem about the experience of working as a storeman over two summers in Wollongong when I was still a teenager, was published in the ever-cool online magazine Snorkel (you can read it here). I’ve been a bit lax recently in sending stuff off to online mags but hope to rectify this in 2008.

In other news, The Age today published my poem ‘Yer Morningness’, and in typical style, it is printed at about the size of a postage stamp. I don’t want to be too critical (after all, it’s great for a major metropolitan newspaper to feature poetry at all!) but could somebody please ask the layout designer to ditch the italics? Honestly, the poetry carries with it its own emphasis, and doesn’t need to be further emphasised by placing the whole fricking poem in italics. Read an early version of the poem (without italics).

In less whingeful news, I’ve also got poems coming out this year in a variety of publications. ‘Rain Loop’ will appear in Meanjin, ‘Kerry’ will grace the pages of Famous Reporter, ‘De Kraai en het Paard’ is coming out in Going Down Swinging, ‘Nieuw Holland’ will be published in Island and ‘imaginary cities: capa’ will be in the next issue of Southerly. As far as I can tell, this will be the sixth or seventh imaginary city to find a home.

Now all I need is a poem in Quadrant so that I can retire from the poetry game in peace.

Finally, in prose news, I’ve written a review of Diana Georgeff’s “Delinquent Angel”, a biography of poet Shelton Lea, which will appear shortly in Overland. I’ve also written a rant based on my PhD thesis, entitled “Bonfire of the Vanity Presses” that should hopefully be appearing in The Weekend Australian very soon as well. Keep your eyes peeled for the Review section!