AustLit

'The forty-eight poems that comprise Alex Skovron’s seventh book-length collection, Letters from the Periphery, are populated by a variety of voices speaking across many settings—from 1960s Sydney to the cafés of today’s Melbourne, from the Trojan War and Byzantine Aleppo to the dark forest of Dante’s Inferno, from eighteenth-century Lisbon to Vienna at the turn of the twentieth, from the American Civil War to warfronts of our time, and of the future. A richly diverse gathering, this book also marks Skovron’s return to the longer poem—notably the title-sequence, featuring a mysterious stalker versed in philosophy; the suite ‘The Light We Convert’, grounded in the world of nineteenth-century music; and the poet’s translation of the opening Canto from The Divine Comedy.'

Source : publisher's blurb

'Two-thirds of the way into this book, in ‘Poem for Dylan Thomas’, a salute to his boyhood poetic hero, John Jenkins finally comes clean: ‘But I confess,’ he tells us, ‘I never wanted to be anything but a writer.’ Poems Far and Wide, which it’s my honour to be launching today, gives us no reason to question John’s confession. Although this is his first new volume in some ten years, it’s a large and generous book. And yes, this poet loves writing, all right – he enjoys nothing better than to let his thoughts and inventions seize him by the pen, and lead him where they will, and whatever the distance.' (Introduction) 

'I frequently begin a launch speech by saying something about my connection with the launchee. This occasion will be no exception. However, there is a slight question-mark as to when exactly Earl Livings and I first met. We seem to agree that it must have happened at the poetry readings in the Lower Town Hall at Hawthorn, which we both attended from the late 1980s into the mid ’90s. We even did a live three-way collaboration there with the composer Roger Alsop in an event featuring some of our poetry set to music in electronic, computer-generated form! So this poet and I do go back a fair way.' (Introduction)

'A biographical outline of the life, work and achievements of Dr Serge Liberman (1942–2017), noted author, editor, scholar and medical practitioner based in Melbourne, Australia.'  (Publication abstract)

'A man wakes up one morning to find an unknown woman in bed beside him. A failed writer devises an ingenious method of plagiarizing the work of others. Whole properties in a suburban neighbourhood begin vanishing overnight. An ancient grand piano is purchased by a mysterious young customer with an old secret. A spontaneous experiment in the paranormal produces an unexpected result...

'This collection of 14 short stories is Alex Skovron's second book of fiction, after his novella The Poet (2005) introduces an eclectic range of protagonists, predicaments, voices, and narrative styles - playful, earnest, speculative, ironic, intimate, bittersweet, surreal. Between them, the characters' stories highlight the untoward in the everyday, the transformative in the mundane, the twists and turning-points that can challenge us - and the games we play with others, and with ourselves.' (Publication summary)