From the little I know, I'd tend to agree with Andrew here.
The Tranter/Mead anthology is probabaly the best introduction; although
for younger poets I'd add Calyx, edited by Peter Minter & Michael
Brennan. And it would be helpful to also track down the Penguin Book of
Australian Women Poets...
Then go after collections by the ones you really like....
Doug
On 20-Dec-06, at 6:27 AM, andrew burke wrote:
> One? Phew, not a wise thing to do. Of course, there is the Oxford
> Guide to
> Australian Literature (or similar title), which covers it all in a
> broad
> sweep. But who knows what use such surveys are. I would suggest buying
> an
> anthology of poetry - like John Tranter's The Penquin Book of Modern
> Australian Poetry - and a book of Australian short stories, plus a few
> contemporary novels by Peter Carey, Tim Winton, Kate Grenville, Helen
> Garner, David Malouf, Patrick White, Jeanette Hospital Turner, Thea
> Astley,
> and Murray Bail. (That's a short list - I'm impressed we have so many
> I'm
> proud of!) Theatre I'll leave up to Alison ... I'd also buy Robert
> Adamson's
> Mulberry Leaves (a collected), Andrew Taylor's Collected Poems, and Les
> Murray's Collected. JohnTranter has a 'collected' out through SALT,
> but I've
> temporarily forgotten the title.
>
> Zukovsky once said something along the lines of, 'The true study of
> poetry
> is the poem.' That goes for all literature.
>
> Give yourself a Christmas present: buy up big.
>
>
> Andrew
>
>
Douglas Barbour
11655 - 72 Avenue NW
Edmonton Ab T6G 0B9
(780) 436 3320
http://www.ualberta.ca/~dbarbour/
Latest book: Continuations (with Sheila E Murphy)
http://www.uap.ualberta.ca/UAP.asp?LID=41&bookID=664
O deceptive mouth
covering up
for the heart like that.
Jenny Bornholdt
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