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AbstractHistoryArchive Description
'What and who makes good poetry? The Best Australian Poems anthology enters its sixteenth year with exciting young poet and critic Sarah Holland-Batt presenting her picks of this year’s standout work.' (Source: Publisher's website)
Contents
* Contents derived from the
Melbourne,
Victoria,:Black Inc.
, 2016 version. Please note that other versions/publications may contain different contents. See the Publication Details.
- Introduction, single work essay (p. xi)
- Patioi"At any moment", single work poetry (p. 1)
- Black Winged Stiltsi"Two long, plaited, clouds of cotton-wool fog", single work poetry (p. 2-3)
- In the Billy Sing Bagdad Bar-and-Grilli"I’d heard the director didn’t need an Asian to play him,", single work poetry (p. 4)
- [Untitled]i"–this light exists –that dark", single work poetry (p. 5)
- Advanced Souvlakii"A Kookaburra sits on the cage", single work poetry (p. 6)
- Learning Bundjalung on Tharawali"Above his desk it is written:", single work poetry (p. 7-8)
- A Panegyric for Toadsi"These slum-lords of burrows and tree-hollows", single work poetry (p. 9)
- Dark Hearti"I look in here—this", single work poetry (p. 11-16)
- Discovered in a Rock Pooli"A star-shaped object rising up", single work poetry (p. 17-18)
- There and Theni"Friends in a field, their shadows running long into the untilled ground, and I’m busy", single work poetry (p. 19)
- Waiting on Imran Khani"I knew they were trouble the moment they walked in.", single work poetry (p. 20-21)
- The Pigi"Who would write of a pig", single work poetry (p. 22)
- Sireni"We walk past the ruined past", single work poetry (p. 23-25)
- Suspended Beliefi"(vision in a Guangzhou wet market)", single work poetry (p. 26-27)
- Rooibosi"the day goes by", single work poetry (p. 28-33)
- Car Loveri"It can be healing to walk the vacant streets", single work poetry (p. 35)
- Cloaca Maximai"Any, every, thing that was exposed", single work poetry (p. 36)
- Axe Derbyi"Never were knuckle-men.", single work poetry (p. 37)
- Plan Bi"Plan A: find man sympathetic to children but who loves me best of all.", single work poetry (p. 38)
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Works about this Work
-
Paul Munden Reviews The Best Australian Poems 2016
2017
single work
essay
— Appears in: Cordite Poetry Review , 1 March vol. 57 no. 1 2017;'In her introduction to this anthology, editor Sarah Holland-Batt claims for the work ‘a colloquialism, contrarianism and playfulness that separates it from its counterparts in the northern hemisphere’. Being hitherto more familiar with that northern hemisphere, this reviewer’s critical interest was immediately aroused.' (Introduction)
-
March in Poetry
2017
single work
column
— Appears in: Overland [Online] , March 2017; -
Grape-Picking
2017
single work
essay
— Appears in: Quadrant , March vol. 61 no. 3 2017; (p. 81-84) 'Sarah Holland-Batt has truly disappointed with her stewardship of Best Australian Poems 2016. She did not follow her own guidelines for submissions, and thereby misled every poet submitting to this anthology, resulting in the omission of at least thirty poets who could have been included.' (Introduction) -
Unruly Energies : Two Surveys of Australian Poetry
2017
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , March no. 389 2017; (p. 43-45) ‘According to The Magic Pudding, Bunyip Bluegum’s erudition is established through his ability to ‘converse on a great variety of subjects, having read all the best Australian poets’, a questionable achievement in Norman Lindsay’s day. A glance through the Annals of Australian Literature reveals the paucity of quality Australian poetry volumes published through most of the twentieth century, with selection shaped by the tastes of powerfully controlling editors, especially Douglas Stewart. Even in 1966, Max Harris’s survey essay on ‘Conflicts in Australian Intellectual Life’ – in which he inveighs against the academic gatekeeping of critics such as A.D. Hope, James McAuley, and Vincent Buckley in the post-‘Ern Malley’ era – notes the limited opportunities for publication by emerging ‘younger non-intellectual’ poets. This situation changed dramatically for the generation of poets who appeared in the 1970s, with generous subsidies and the emergence of a range of independent and commercial publishing opportunities for poetry volumes: poets of this generation – whilst splitting the spoils along the lines of painstakingly demarcated coteries – responded to this opportunity by producing oeuvres often staggeringly more voluminous than those of the poets who preceded them (Kenneth Slessor’s 100 Poems would these days barely constitute a single publication).’ (Introduction)
-
Unruly Energies : Two Surveys of Australian Poetry
2017
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , March no. 389 2017; (p. 43-45) ‘According to The Magic Pudding, Bunyip Bluegum’s erudition is established through his ability to ‘converse on a great variety of subjects, having read all the best Australian poets’, a questionable achievement in Norman Lindsay’s day. A glance through the Annals of Australian Literature reveals the paucity of quality Australian poetry volumes published through most of the twentieth century, with selection shaped by the tastes of powerfully controlling editors, especially Douglas Stewart. Even in 1966, Max Harris’s survey essay on ‘Conflicts in Australian Intellectual Life’ – in which he inveighs against the academic gatekeeping of critics such as A.D. Hope, James McAuley, and Vincent Buckley in the post-‘Ern Malley’ era – notes the limited opportunities for publication by emerging ‘younger non-intellectual’ poets. This situation changed dramatically for the generation of poets who appeared in the 1970s, with generous subsidies and the emergence of a range of independent and commercial publishing opportunities for poetry volumes: poets of this generation – whilst splitting the spoils along the lines of painstakingly demarcated coteries – responded to this opportunity by producing oeuvres often staggeringly more voluminous than those of the poets who preceded them (Kenneth Slessor’s 100 Poems would these days barely constitute a single publication).’ (Introduction) -
Grape-Picking
2017
single work
essay
— Appears in: Quadrant , March vol. 61 no. 3 2017; (p. 81-84) 'Sarah Holland-Batt has truly disappointed with her stewardship of Best Australian Poems 2016. She did not follow her own guidelines for submissions, and thereby misled every poet submitting to this anthology, resulting in the omission of at least thirty poets who could have been included.' (Introduction) -
March in Poetry
2017
single work
column
— Appears in: Overland [Online] , March 2017; -
Paul Munden Reviews The Best Australian Poems 2016
2017
single work
essay
— Appears in: Cordite Poetry Review , 1 March vol. 57 no. 1 2017;'In her introduction to this anthology, editor Sarah Holland-Batt claims for the work ‘a colloquialism, contrarianism and playfulness that separates it from its counterparts in the northern hemisphere’. Being hitherto more familiar with that northern hemisphere, this reviewer’s critical interest was immediately aroused.' (Introduction)
Last amended 21 Mar 2018 08:08:46
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