A conversation with Geoff Goodfellow

' ... a few days previously when he'd read at Risdon Women's Prison in Hobart. Only three women turned up, yet the recital of his cancer poem 'The Seventh Doctor' resonated so strongly with his audience that within minutes they'd photocopied ten sets of the poem to distribute to fellow inmates. 'They said, it's not normal poetry. And no, it's not. I don't want to write poetry about a vase of flowers. People can do that - and do it very well - but I've never had the language or inclination to achieve that. I've always believed there should be a social usefulness with poetry.'
Read the full interview

Bruce Pascoe : 'Blind White Spirit Men'
'On most occasions, however, raids were swift and the warriors returned to their own land, their country, the country to which they had pledged their duty of care and observance of ritual.
'If the pre-conditions of imperial war existed why were they not used, especially during times when the relative resource and climatic fortunes favoured some groups over others?
'Was the imperial impulse absent or managed?'
Read more

David Kelly : 'A diversion on the technical side: a good free verse poem and a good contemporary sonnet'

Terry Whitebeach : 'Trawling Varuna Seas'
'Everything clamours for inclusion. My world must be wide enough to allow everything entrance, everything its own quiet place. So I listen more carefully to the voices of those I have excluded, have forced to remain silent or banished to the realms of history and otherness. The disallowed, who insist, until admitted, till made "quiet" by acknowledgement.

Janet Upcher : Angela Gardner's 'Views of the Hudson'
So what does this collection offer? Some interesting but obvious reflections on New York in the 21st century? Are there new insights or only reinforcement of things we already knew?
There is the affirmation that simple things are what make us human: 'The unlikeliest encounters redefine us, making being unexpectedly holy'; there is the sense that friends, family, summer warmth can compensate for loveless sex, materialism and the worship of money as the 'king' of all the earth.
If these sonnets are a new search for meaning, for religious scaffolding in a crumbling society, then the search may have been worth it; they reflect 'now' in the same way as digital images do.
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Jodie Hawthorne : Ian Johnston's 'Waiting for the Owl: Poems and Songs from Ancient China'

Mark O'Flynn : Deb Westbury's 'A View from Here'
The book balances between poems concerning the social world, and those of personal, introspective reflection. As the title of the collection suggests 'The View From Here' expresses an individual perspective of the world, informed by an intimacy of detailed observation.
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Famous Reporter 42 [forthcoming issue]

Famous Reporter 41 [current issue]

Past issues
[nos. 1 - 40:
Jun 1987 to Dec 2009]

Guidelines for contributors

Poetry

Haiku

Interviews

Reviews

Launch speeches

Cedric's wall
New writing by young Tasmanians, aged 12 to 25

Tasmanian Poetry Festival
Tasmania's premier literary festival
[& for the official festival site, visit HERE]

Skirting the periphery
Blog : savouring the literature of small island communities