As a long time fan of Murnane’s writing, I was pleased to read in the AGE today that he’d won the Melbourne Prize for Literature. His new novel, The Barley Patch, now heads my wishlist, or it would if it was listed on Amazon. For anyone yet to discover the strange and beautiful world of Murnane, you’re in for a treat.

Full AGE story HERE

Michael Epis AGE blog piece on Murnane’s new novel  HERE

 

When I’m not thinking about poetry, I’m teaching, mainly English and Literature.  For a while now I’ve been co-writing an English text book, and the latest edition came out this week. It’s a practical guide to one aspect of the English course, designed for Year 12 VCE students in Victoria.  I like the subdued cover colours this year. The book is published by Cengage.

The latest Five Bells magazine, coming out f the Poets Union, has as its them ‘Poetry and Music’ and features pieces by Peter Goldsworthy, Angela Stretch and Cathy Bray. It’s the third issue in the new more compact format, which I really like, and sits nicely along my old collections of Poetry Australia.

I’ve always enjoyed Mark O’Connor’s poetry about the landscape and the natural world, though he’s gone a bit quiet since the days when he was everywhere, and always seemed to be with Les Murray. So, nice to see a new book, Pilbara, coming out of the distinguished John Leonard Press, being launched at the University of Melbourne,  on November 8.  All welcome.

Anyone who’s read this blog for any length of time will know that I’ve got a bit of a thing for those literary places that connect up with writers I like. So, one of the highlights of a recent trip to the USA was a trip to Walden Pond.  We were staying in Boston for a few days so took the suburban commuter train to Concord and then walked out to Walden Pond, the place Thoreau made famous. It’s about a half an hour walk. It was well worth the trip to walk the lake and see the reconstruction of Thoreau’s cottage as well as the site of the original house, which people make literary pilgrimages to. Which is what I was doing I suppose.

I received my invitation to the launch of a new coffee-table book Reflecting on Melbourne, which will feature a poem and a photograph of mine along with lots of other writers and photographers.  Unfortunately I can’t attend as I’m riding around the Bay that day but I’m sure it will be great.

The book will be launched by Arnold Zable at St Paul’s Cathedral on Sunday October 18th at 2.30. It’s published by Poetica Christi Press and edited by Janette Fernando and Jean Sietzema-Dickson.  You can find more details, or order the book from poetica@iprimus.com.au