Tag: Giramondo Publishing

Writing ‘The Burning Elephant’

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by Christopher Raja “startling”, “ vivid” and “compelling” (Sydney Morning Herald, 20 November, 2015) The Burning Elephant is a Young Adult novel that deals with the assassination of Indira Gandhi and it is completely set in India; it is also about a family’s journey to Australia. It’s a lot more than this and difficult to categorise. When I began writing this novel it was as a response to my father’s untimely death. He drowned when I was eighteen, and for years I was rudderless and I got very sick. Looking back at our time in India was a way for…

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10 outrageous things that happened in poetry in 2015. You won’t believe what number 6 is!

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by Liam Ferney, This is and isn’t a top ten poetry list for 2015. There are ten entries. They’re not all poets or books. Very few, if any, were actually published this year. But it is an opportunity to share the work that most shaped my thinking about poetry this year. I said enough about Michael Robbins last week, but if I hadn’t The Second Sex would be on my list. Next year I’ll be contemporary. I promise. deciBels (Vagabond Press) Pam Brown’s brilliantly curated deciBels series, Vagabond Press’ Rare Objects replacement, proved a fertile well. Familiar faces in the…

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Just Make it Electric

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by Felicity Castagna A lot of space in literary circles has been given of late to trying to define what is highbrow and what is middlebrow and why those distinctions matter. I think we would be better off having a debate about literature that is ‘technically good’ but boring and literature that is ‘electric.’ That, to me, is a distinction that matters. It is a distinction that makes a text both engaging and enduring. In my mind, the electricity of literature lies in the voice of the text: it’s the hardest thing to get right and it’s also the hardest…

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Vale JS Harry

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JS Harry (1939-2015) JS Harry, one of Australian poetry’s “great transgressors”, described by Peter Porter in 2007 as “the most arresting poet working in Australia today”, died peacefully in her sleep Wednesday morning 20th May. It followed a long and debilitating illness, which she bore uncomplainingly with the good humour and grace that was so typical of her. Until her final days she continued to respond with wisdom, acuteness and appreciation to visiting family and friends. Born in South Australia, Harry spent most of her life in Sydney. Early on she began submitting her stories and poetry to children’s magazines…

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