Projects – Page 4

8 October 2004

Marzipan: A Confection (2004)

Marzipan: A Confection is the title of my Master of Arts (Research) Thesis in Creative Writing, undertaken at the University of Melbourne between 2002 and 2004.

The Thesis, a 30,000 word novella, describes the invention of marzipan in a fictional German town during a famine in the 1400s.

The central narrative is preceded by a section entitled Method, which documents a history of Marzipan and my own creative involvement with this peculiar subject matter over the past 10 years.

The narrative itself is broken into four Parts, corresponding to three relatively undisputed ingredients of Marzipan (namely Eggs, Almonds and Sugar) and a Secret ingredient. Each Part is composed of one or more Chapters.

The narrative is followed by a short Notes section detailing the original models for each of the Characters and a list of Sources.

I began writing the story of Marzipan in the mid-1990s, the first results of which were published as ‘A Brief History of Marzipan’ in New England Review (University of New England, 1999).

A second piece, ‘The Invention of Marzipan’, a partly-confected essay, was published in Antithesis (University of Melbourne, 2004).

21 August 2004

OI: poewemz bii tom see (2004)

In 2004 I had the bright idea of starting up a poetry imprint for Cordite Poetry Review: Cordite On Demand (or COD). It was a short-lived venture, to say the least, but we did publish two books, and also set up an equally short-lived website.

The first book published by COD was the idiosyncratically titled OI: poewemz bii tom see (2004), which was actually written by Tom Clark, with illustrations by Charles Lake. The poems in the book are written in Tom’s trademark phonetic style: see ‘Heet’, which was published in Cordite’s first issue in print, for an example.

The book itself was designed to mimic the shape and size of a record cover, with the titles printed on the back as if it was an album rather than a book. Looking back, this was definitely an exercise in discovery: trying to work out how to design and format an object that was true to the author’s style and personality.

OI: poewemz bii tom see (2004)Download

OI: poewemz bii tom see (2004)
Goalden aij
Dhe paasing uv jaimz bond
Dhe Wautuweel
Daivi joenzez lokur
Tranz
Tramz
Daun-derj
Dhu blak and green skaerkroe
U praer fur joniy
Evurest (audio)
Hoem
Songmoth
Wen niits berden faulz
Wej-tail
Dubul disuloushen kiit
Freedum
Henliy beetc
In praiz uv patenz

12 October 2002

8 poems (2002)

My chapbook 8 poems appeared as part of a three-chapbook issue of du papa, a short lived poetry press established by Michael Farrell and Joe Hill.

8 poems, together with with Melbourne poet Claire Gaskin’s 9 poems and Slovenian poet Primoz Cucnik’s 4 poems, was staple-bound individually in A4 format and compiled loosely in a plain white folio with a black ink line on its cover. A total of 100 copies of each chapbook were printed.

Collectors may be interested to note that the inside front cover incorrectly states that I was born in 1969.

8 January 2000

The Happy Farang (2000)

My first chapbook, The Happy Farang, was self-published in 2000, although the colophon page lists Pumpkin Press as the publisher.

The Happy Farang, cover image. — The original front cover for *The Happy Farang* (2000).

The making of The Happy Farang

The poems in this chapbook were all written while travelling in Thailand and Laos in 1999. Most are written from the point of view of a Western tourist or, in Thai, ‘farang’.

On my return to Australia, keen to have a lasting memento of my travels, I typed the poems into a word processing file on a PC and then printed one copy on a cheap laser-jet printer before finalising the cover.

I made up the name of Pumpkin Press, and listed its address as that of my own apartment at the time.

In 2000 I took this chapbook with me to Newcastle, where I stayed with a friend who had access to a colour photocopier at his work. Late one night we printed 200 copies of each page. We then took the pages home and stapled them all together.

And thus, The Happy Farang was born; and twelve years later, it was reborn.

the happy farang

monk lovers

bangkok: city of angles

thomas pynchon & the art of anonymity maintenence

cities on the move

Tuk-tuk

the postman of kowloon

Non-Touristic Trek

The Chao Le

Takraw Monkey

Oh Blossom

Mountains of Pai

Mr Tui

Emaciated Buddha

The Boys on Thanon Lim Khong

Low Season, Last Days

The Kip & How to Carry It

Under the Pavement, Laos

A Photographer’s Wet Dream

Cock & Football

Visit Laos Year

Tintin & the Plain of Jars

The Gums of Vientiane

Glossary

1 December 1993 / 0 Comments

Bruce Beaver and Rainer Maria Rilke (1993)

As part of my Bachelor of Arts degree at the University of Sydney I completed an Honours year in Australian Literature in 1993.

In addition to coursework, I completed a 15,000 word thesis, entitled Bruce Beaver and Rainer Maria Rilke.

Australian poet Bruce Beaver (1928–2004) conveniently signposted his fascination with the poetry of Rainer Maria Rilke (1875–1926) in his published poetic output, with individual poems across several collections addressing elements of Rilke’s art.

This thesis examines the nature of the Rilkean strain in Beaver’s work by means of analysis of both poets’ work. Specifically, it proposes a link between Beaver’s Rilkean spirit and the use of oceanic imagery in his poetry.

Part I analyses Rilke’s New Poems (1907) and The Duino Elegies (1922), together with Beaver’s Letters to Live Poets (1969).

Part II expands on Beaver’s use of the ocean, particularly in the context of the void, or gaps, in his poetry, with an emphasis on the poems in Lauds and Plaints (1974).

Beaver’s and Rilke’s concepts of the artist are also explored in order to gauge the extent and significance of Beaver’s ocean of poetry.

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