AustLit logo

AustLit

Ali Smith Ali Smith i(A36110 works by) (a.k.a. Ali Jane Smith)
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 Conversation with Pest Control i "Not everyone knows I was once", Ali Smith , 2021 single work poetry
— Appears in: Overland [Online] , November 2021;
1 Poems to Paint on a Wall Ali Smith , 2021 single work review
— Appears in: Sydney Review of Books , October 2021;

— Review of Borderless : A Transnational Anthology of Feminist Poetry 2021 anthology poetry

'Things are pretty hectic right now. There’s a lot to do, and there’s a lot to think about: what is happening and what might happen. Yesterday I watched a literary event online while I did housework. It was a warm and joyful discussion, with five writers located across different continents, but the highlight for me was a remark made by host Alvin Pang, who said, ‘For some reason we are uncomfortable about being confused’ – or something very like that, I was washing up as I listened and had to dry my hands then search for a pencil and paper to write the quote down.' (Introduction)

1 Where Do We Park? Ali Smith , 2020 single work review
— Appears in: Sydney Review of Books , October 2020;

— Review of Birth Plan L. K. Holt , 2019 selected work poetry ; Labour and Other Poems Astrid Lorange , 2020 selected work poetry
'I remember sitting in a restaurant, out to dinner with a friend, before I had kids. At the next table a group of mature women were enjoying their meal and a few glasses of wine. They were telling their birth stories, screaming with laughter. The stories and the way they were told were a revelation. Birth was full of things, not just life, death and pain, but jokes, suspense, faces and hands, gas, water, pillows, floors, food, shoes, music, other people, words and sounds, joy, frustration, bitterness, fury and love.'
1 A Break That Can Be Bridged Ali Smith , 2020 single work review
— Appears in: Sydney Review of Books , April 2020;

— Review of A Kinder Sea Felicity Plunkett , 2020 selected work poetry

'A week ago, this review had a different beginning. The first sentence was ‘Let’s begin with bridges’. And we’ll get to the bridges. But as I’m writing, at the end of a long day with my kids at home, I hear Leigh Sales giving kindness a plug on the 7:30 Report. I’ve already muted a Facebook Group called The Kindness Pandemic. A lot of the stories being told on The Kindness Pandemic were hopeful and heart-warming. But small acts of kindness just aren’t doing it for me.'  (Introduction)

1 The Language of Flowers i "The very glossy dark leaves of camellias", Ali Smith , 2020 single work poetry
— Appears in: Cordite Poetry Review , 1 February no. 95 2020;
1 Entirely Different and Unexpected Things (Said Schoenberg) i "once we’ve walked down the hill", Ali Smith , 2019 single work poetry
— Appears in: Plumwood Mountain : An Australian Journal of Ecopoetry and Ecopoetics , February vol. 6 no. 1 2019;
1 Reading Apparently Ali Smith , 2019 single work essay
— Appears in: Sydney Review of Books , July 2019;

'When I started reading apparently, savouring the contents page, I was sitting in Wollongong’s beloved Rad Bar waiting for the band to start. I get everywhere too early, but that’s not a problem if you’ve got a book. I started humming to myself. I was humming the song I’ve been loving you too long by Otis Redding and Jerry Butler. Because apparently is by Joanne Burns. And I’ve been reading and loving her work for nearly thirty years. We don’t have anyone better than Joanne Burns. And apparently is at least as good as all the other books by Joanne Burns, and it’s better than some. So if this was going to be a solely evaluative review all I’d have to say is apparently is really, really good. You won’t find a book of poetry that’s better. I’ve been loving the work of Joanne Burns too long to stop now, I can’t pretend to approach apparently any other way.'  (Introduction)

1 Poetry, Whatsoever : Blake, Blau DuPlessis, and an Expansive Definition of the Poem Ali Smith , 2019 single work essay
— Appears in: Cordite Poetry Review , May no. 91 2019;

'William Blake pinches himself. Yes! He is alive, not in heaven or hell for all eternity, but on earth, for just as long as I need him for the purposes of this essay. In the almost two hundred years since William Blake died many things have changed. William Blake knows very well that he was not all that successful last time he was alive, definitely not famous. He was hardworking, but also pretty weird, and not great at self-promotion. Luckily, William Blake has a smart phone so he can look himself up on Encyclopaedia Britannica (William Blake avoids Wikipedia because it campaigned to weaken Australian copyright law). William Blake reads that after he died the Pre-Raphaelites got interested in his work, and so did Yeats, T S Eliot, and Northrop Frye. William Blake does a quick vanity search on duckduckgo.com. There are a lot of entries. Wow, his drawings and paintings are in the Tate! And his poem ‘Jerusalem’ is sung at rugby matches, cricket games, and Women’s Institute meetings. You can even buy collections of his poetry in the bookshop in Wollongong Mall. And then an ad pops up for a Dr. Martens boot that features his painting ‘Satan Smiting Job with Sore Boils’. William Blake thinks a pair of Birkenstocks would suit him better, but he’s not sure of his shoe size, so he has to leave this essay and wander down to the shops to try on sandals, where he will discover that if you say ‘tyger tyger’ to a person of a certain age, they quite often say ‘burning bright’ back to you. Goodbye William Blake. Enjoy the shoe shopping. We’re going to stay here and talk about poetry.' (Introduction)

1 Our Moment, Mary Beth i "This is our Cagney and Lacey moment.", Ali Smith , 2018 single work poetry
— Appears in: Not Very Quiet , September no. 3 2018;
1 Have You Any Dirty Washing, Mother Dear? i "We’re the only customers at the sausage sizzle", Ali Smith , 2018 single work poetry
— Appears in: Southerly , December vol. 78 no. 3 2018; (p. 170-172)
1 Tom's Blues i "Fairy Meadow has everything you need.", Ali Smith , 2018 single work poetry
— Appears in: Rabbit , no. 26 2018; (p. 74-75)
1 Cheer i "Smell of hairspray like ballet class", Ali Smith , 2018 single work poetry
— Appears in: Rabbit , no. 25 2018; (p. 62-63)
1 A Book Is A Good Place To Think Ali Smith , 2018 single work essay
— Appears in: Sydney Review of Books , September 2018;

'The title of Kate Lilley’s poetry collection is a poem all by itself. On the title page ‘TILT’ appears beneath the author’s name, making a visual rhyme with the ‘T’ from ‘Kate’, the ‘IL’ from ‘Lilley’. TILT is a not-quite-palindrome, only the horizontal on the ‘L’ throws out the symmetry. Being a little off balance is useful when reading these poems, as Lilley tips things askew to shake out what’s been camouflaged. As we read we’ll learn that Tilt was the name of a movie about pinball that starred a thirteen-year-old Brooke Shields. In pinball, it’s okay to nudge the machine to try and stay in control of the game, but to tilt the table is considered cheating. I’m not keen to make a reading of the word ‘tilt’ that references Don Quixote, despite Brian Bird’s 1948 photograph of ‘Luna Park lighted windmill’ that appears on the cover of the book. The giants Lilley rides at in these poems are not imaginary.' (Introduction)

1 Big Arms i "Plenty of room for an ample bum in these injection-moulded chairs", Ali Smith , 2017 single work poetry
— Appears in: Not Very Quiet , September vol. 1 no. 2017;
1 Circa 1885 i "Two women with their backs to the camera, the silk of an umbrella taut and smooth.", Ali Smith , 2017 single work poetry
— Appears in: Not Very Quiet , September vol. 1 no. 2017;
1 Old Loaf i "oh yes, as soon as a new loaf of bread comes into the house", Ali Smith , 2017 single work poetry
— Appears in: Southerly , vol. 77 no. 2 2017; (p. 112)
1 Bertie's Chickens and the Why i "A walk through Coniston, homes and gardens arranged", Ali Smith , 2017 single work poetry
— Appears in: Australian Poetry Journal , vol. 7 no. 2 2017; (p. 30-31)
1 Quarry i "The 53 bus rollercoasters Robsons Road.", Ali Smith , 2017 single work poetry
— Appears in: Overland , Summer no. 229 2017; (p. 22)
1 Becoming Fay Zwicky Ali Smith , 2017 single work essay
— Appears in: Sydney Review of Books , November 2017;

'In the essay ‘Border Crossings’, included as an opening to The Collected Poems of Fay Zwicky, the poet recounts a memory. The night before she was to start at a new school, her mother sat on the end of her bed and taught her to say the Lord’s Prayer. This would be a rather commonplace recollection except that she and her mother were Jewish, the school she was about to start was the Melbourne Church of England Girls’ Grammar School, her mother’s alma mater, and when Zwicky described this memory to her mother, her mother said that such a thing had never happened.' (Introduction)

1 Give or Take a Cluster of Well-placed Words Ali Smith , 2017 single work column
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 14 October 2017; (p. 20)

'Sometimes poetry is made of words thought up and strung together. Sometimes it’s made of words found and rearranged: words from other poems, from signage or advertising, from overheard conversation, from novels, magazine articles, from Twitter, from the newspaper. Every kind of literary art and verbal detritus can be reused by poets.' (Introduction)

X