AustLit logo

AustLit

NLA image of person
Judith Beveridge Judith Beveridge i(A24533 works by) (a.k.a. Judy Beveridge)
Born: Established: 1956 London,
c
England,
c
c
United Kingdom (UK),
c
Western Europe, Europe,
;
Gender: Female
The material on this page is available to AustLit subscribers. If you are a subscriber or are from a subscribing organisation, please log in to gain full access. To explore options for subscribing to this unique teaching, research, and publishing resource for Australian culture and storytelling, please contact us or find out more.

Works By

Preview all
1 The Break Wall i "A few crabs are packed in the crevices of the break wall.", Judith Beveridge , 2021 single work poetry
— Appears in: Island , no. 163 2021; (p. 26)
1 Washer Women at the River i "No cloth too little for them to rinse, no stain or stench", Judith Beveridge , 2020 single work poetry
— Appears in: The Blue Nib [Online] , December 2020;
1 High Seas, Manly Beach i "Surfers in wetsuits, tight as inner-tubes, watch the swell build –", Judith Beveridge , 2020 single work poetry
— Appears in: The Blue Nib [Online] , December 2020;
1 Holding Ground i "Here are the fields I roamed as a child,", Judith Beveridge , 2020 single work poetry
— Appears in: The Blue Nib [Online] , November 2020;
1 A Country Park i "There are no unit blocks stacked densely", Judith Beveridge , 2020 single work poetry
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 28 November 2020; (p. 16)
1 The Slaughter i "We bent the camels’ legs back at the knees", Judith Beveridge , 2020 single work poetry
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , December no. 427 2020;
1 Walking a Forest Trail on One Summer Afternoon Judith Beveridge , 2020 single work poetry
— Appears in: Island , no. 160 2020; (p. 26)
1 A King Sends a Delegation to Meet a Clan in the South i "We’ve heard they make music", Judith Beveridge , 2020 single work poetry
— Appears in: Cordite Poetry Review , May no. 96 2020;
1 Speaking to Siddattha about His Birth i "We felt the weight of the waiting. You were late, late.", Judith Beveridge , 2020 single work poetry
— Appears in: StylusLit , March no. 7 2020;
1 When 'Someone Is Writing a Poem' : The Role of Metaphor in Transforming the Inhabited Experience of Life-threatening Illness Carolyn Rickett , Judith Beveridge , Jill Gordon , Paul Race , 2019 single work criticism
— Appears in: Axon : Creative Explorations , May vol. 9 no. 1 2019;

'But most often someone writing a poem believes in, depends on, a delicate, vibrating range of difference, that an ‘I’ can become a ‘we’ without extinguishing others, that a partly common language exists to which strangers can bring their own heartbeat, memories, images. A language that itself has learned from the heartbeat, memories, images of strangers. (Rich 2003: 86)

'The New leaves writing project was designed to provide people experiencing life-threatening illnesses the poetic tools to help gain self-confidence, literary skills and some kind of aesthetic satisfaction by creating their own poems. Because poetry often utilises the language of the subconscious, it has a unique capacity to help people uncover and listen to the deeper meanings of their lives (Harrower 1972; Mazza 1999). Poetry enables people to feel their lives, rather than to withdraw, or retreat into emotional numbness or states of paralysis in times of crisis. Participants in our project found writing poetry helped build an interior space and – when undertaken in a group led by Judith Beveridge, who is an experienced practitioner – connect their work to a wider community. This article focuses on the ways in which the creation of metaphors and symbolic images enabled New leaves poets to represent the knowledge and experience of illness while moving dialogically from an isolated ‘I’ to a connected ‘We’ by participating in the workshop and publication process.' (Publication abstract)

1 A Walk in the Wetlands i "A boardwalk of recycled rubber softens our steps;", Judith Beveridge , 2019 single work poetry
— Appears in: Meanjin , Autumn vol. 78 no. 1 2019; (p. 193)
1 Vultures i "High up, circling, they’re miniature,", Judith Beveridge , 2019 single work
— Appears in: Meanjin , Autumn vol. 78 no. 1 2019; (p. 20)
1 10 y separately published work icon The Gang of One : Selected Poems of Robert Harris Robert Harris , Judith Beveridge (editor), Flinders Lane : Grand Parade Poets , 2019 16343934 2019 selected work poetry

'Grand Parade Poets are pleased to be publishing The Gang of One, the Selected Poems of Robert Harris, edited by Judith Beveridge with an introduction by Philip Mead. Though well represented in anthologies, Harris (1951-1993) is a major writer who has until now missed out on the Selected Poems milestone. Unaligned with any ‘faction’, though a close friend to many in the poetry/literary community, Harris is a very fine poet with this for an important hallmark: the variety of his subject matter and inspiration. Consider this for starters: you turn the page from a suite of poems fired by the World War 2 sinking of HMAS Sydney and then you are in Tudor England, with all the plots and counter-plots surrounding Lady Jane Grey, the ‘nine day queen’ and martyr. And beyond even the variety there are two things which truly anchor the Harris opus: his commitment to writing of and about Australia (though never to the exclusion of others, nor in any phoney nationalist manner) and his Christian faith, which probably was his poetry’s bedrock. Here is a volume of verse both gritty and humane, by a decided ‘one off’. Both his memory and Australian literature deserve it.' (Publication summary)

1 Rileys Coast i "Wind thwacks the spinnakers as ropes are pulled", Judith Beveridge , 2018 single work poetry
— Appears in: Stilts , December no. 3 2018;
1 The Poetry of David Brooks Judith Beveridge , 2018 single work essay
— Appears in: Southerly , vol. 78 no. 1 2018; (p. 33-41)

'Since 1983, David Brooks has produced five collections of poetry: 'The Cold Front, Walking to Point Clear, Urban Elegies, The Balcony and Open House', the last four published between 2005 and 2015. All of David Brooks's poetry collections show a remarkable facility with the demands of free verse, his preferred mode. There are only a very small handful of poems which use more formal structures. Immediately apparent is his mastery of the line. Because there are no hard and fast rules as to where to break a free verse line, its use can be problematic, especially if the style is conversational and the language leans towards plainness, then a prose-like laxness can be the result, but Brooks avoids all these pitfalls. Brooks is generally a conversational poet, his poems engage the reader through personal observations, revelations and epiphanic disclosures. His ability to pace the poems, and to use his free verse lines to distribute modulations of voice and tone, cadence and meaning keeps his work kinetic, buoyant and constantly surprising.' (Publication abstract)

 

1 Driving to Broken Hill i "Distance—continuous, ungestured. Crows", Judith Beveridge , 2018 single work poetry
— Appears in: Cordite Poetry Review , 1 May no. 86 2018;
1 The Boathouse i "No one on the boats, just cats – thin, furtive.", Judith Beveridge , 2018 single work poetry
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , April no. 400 2018; (p. 64)
1 Sweetness i "It’s almost evening and I can hear the honey-gatherers", Judith Beveridge , 2018 single work poetry
— Appears in: Meanjin , Autumn vol. 77 no. 1 2018; (p. 191)
1 7 y separately published work icon Sun Music : New and Selected Poems Judith Beveridge , Artarmon : Giramondo Publishing , 2018 13182748 2018 selected work poetry

'Sun Music collects Beveridge’s best poems published over a thirty-year period, from 1987 to 2017. She has selected the poems from her award-winning collections, The Domesticity of Giraffes, Accidental Grace, Wolf Notes and Storm and Honey, and included 33 new poems which build on and enhance her previous work. Beveridge is an exacting poet, precise and controlled, and her formal discipline gives added intensity to her expression of emotion. The combination of clarity and dramatic force, involving a supple use of language which registers the ebb and flow of feeling, makes her poetry immediately appealing and accessible. As she notes in her introduction to this collection, ‘My writing can be kaleidoscopic, often baroque, but I hope also grounded and focused…I am drawn to poetry that has rich texture, and by this, I mean poetry that is distinctly metaphorical, detailed, musically complex, but also clear.’'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

1 Native Orchids i "We’d come as far as the wooden bridge, not too far", Judith Beveridge , 2017 single work poetry
— Appears in: Irises : The University of Canberra Vice-Chancellor's International Poetry Prize 2017 2017; (p. 27-28)
X