Anthologies and the visibility of the poem
One of the impulses behind putting the anthology together was the sense that it was becoming increasingly difficult for good poetry to become visible.…
What might an anthology of the future look like?
What might an anthology of the future look like? What do changes in the nature of the space the poem is written for imply…
Poetry and the Anxieties of the Narrative
One way of thinking of the material of the poem – and I’m being a little idiosyncratic here, so I don’t want to accuse…
Free Verse in 2017
One feature of the period covered by the anthology – easy to overlook, it’s so obvious – is the quality of the free verse…
Brandis mistakes taxpayer money for personal slush fund
The Yarts minister's raid on the Australia Council may satisfy two Liberal groups – traditionalists who like glitzy opening nights, opera and ballet, and…
On not knowing
On not knowing In December I responded to remarks by Fairfax book critic Andrew Riemer concerning Lionel G Fogarty’s poem in the Best Australian Poems…
Future tense: speculation and magic in recent Australian poetry
Last year, around the release of Lisa Gorton’s Hotel Hyperion, it occurred to me that a speculative tradition had quietly become established within recent…
How Soon is Now?
How soon is now? Published in last Saturday's Age and The Sydney Morning Herald, Andrew Riemer’s review of The Best Australian Poems 2013 is…
Poetry with strangers
In the cramped back room of the bar, a group of about thirty people appear to be quietly sitting on one another’s laps. Though…
The Thick … and Thin of it
Narrowness (and Breadth) There can never be any agreed-upon set of standards or values in the wide-ranging and contested poetics at any particular time.…