Poetry review – HARD DRIVE: James Roderick Burns reviews a substantial collection by Paul Stephenson that is both poignant and very personal
Poetry review – FORGETFULNESS Ian Pople admires the mixture of play and serious exploration within Ian Seed’s poetic examination of the workings and failings of memory
Poetry review – maybe i’ll call gillian anderson Kate Noakes finds much to enjoy in Rhian Elizabeth’s reflections upon life after a child leaves home
Poetry review – THE WEIGHT OF SOUND Charles Rammelkamp finds rich detail and skilful understatement in Mariano Zaro’s poems
Long Live the Republic! Review by Alan Price. It’s the spring of 1945 in the Moravian village of Nesovice. The defeated German army is retreating as the Russians rapidly advance. Twelve year old Oldrich (Zdenek Lstiburek) runs away from his parents to journey across a war-torn landscape.
Poetry review – TOYS / TRICKS / TRAPS James Roderick Burns admires Christopher Reid’s tightly focussed examination of childhood
Poetry review – UNDER THE LIPPY Jennifer Johnson finds Angelena Demaria’s poetry to be both important and memorable
Poetry review – PADRE TIERRA Charles Rammelkamp reviews Mariano Zaro’s poetic exploration of a complex parental relationship
Lady Susan. Review by Barbara Lewis. “Lady Susan” is either the culmination of Jane Austen’s youthful experiments with epistolary novels and the narration of society scandals or the beginning of her mature phase of subtle characterisation and the establishment of her distinctive voice, depending on your viewpoint.
Poetry review – THE SCREW CITY POEMS Charles Rammelkamp reviews a new and selected collection from Richard Vargas
Flying Ant Day. Review by Barbara Lewis. Flying ant day – when ants live, reproduce and die – together with the human moment of death are among the less discussed topics even in the voluble world of social media. Writer Joey Ellis takes on this unlikely twinning in a play that crowds a dysfunctional family around a death bed while winged ants throng the air.
PATERSON Alwyn Marriage considers a re-issue of the monumental and unfinished epic by William Carlos Williams
By Michael Bartholomew-Biggs • authors, books, poetry, year 2023