AustLit

'After I returned from overseas I caught up with John Forbes at a reading at La Mama where he and Alan Wearne sat in the front row of the small theatre cheering on Emma Lew. I had seen some of her poems published in the journal 'Otis Rush' and I thought that her poems were mysterious and sharp, reminiscent of Gig Ryan's poems. She read to an appreciative crowd and in the break John told me that he was accepting poets to tutor. Since returning from overseas I had been trying to find some direction in my life. I was working part-time and living in a share house in east St Kilda. I hadn't written much while I was overseas for two years, yet I felt that I had a lot of material within me to write about. I was also nervous about what John might think of my poems, as he wasn't exactly a lover of poems about the country. His own poems were urban, cool, mocking and loaded with clever associations. What would he say about my poems of India and overseas?' (Publication abstract)