Thirty Australian Poets

Thirty Australian Poets

'Over the last forty years I have edited five anthologies of Australian poetry, and I know how hard it is to get it right. This collection ticks all the boxes - the poems are varied, distinctive and energetic, and the poets all show literary talent and a vigorous determination to explore and challenge tradition. Best of all, they are all young: the future looks good!' John Tranter

1968 marked a turning point in Australian poetry, when a dynamic wave of new poets sought to renew a 'moribund poetic culture'. At the helm of that generation was John Tranter, whose own work has continued to flourish over his long career. It was Tranter who argued that there would be cycles or generations of poets with peak moments, crests in those waves where new poets would emerge to revitalise the culture.

Thirty Australian Poets is an exciting new anthology that celebrates a burgeoning, vibrant generation of poets born after 1968. Edited by award-winning author, editor and academic Felicity Plunkett, this collection showcases a wonderful diversity of voices and styles, from re-imagined versions of traditional forms to the experimental and avant-garde. Examples of the breadth and depth of poetic vision in Thirty Australian Poets include: recent award-winning debuts such as Emma Jones and Sarah Holland-Batt, a range of writers born within and beyond Australia, Indigenous poet Samuel Wagan Watson, Iranian-born Ali Alizadeh, and Danijela Kambaskovic-Sawers, whose poems were widely published in the former Yugoslavia before her arrival in Australia.

Plunkett comments, 'It was obvious that there was an exciting range of poetry being published and winning awards by writers of this generation, but creating this anthology continually reinforced the importance of this generation of poets. The creative multifariousness of these poets is evident - many are teachers, reviewers and editors of poetry, as well as writers in new and emerging forms including fiction, memoir and writing for stage and screen. This is a snapshot of what is going on now and around it there are other vital energies gathering, figures just outside the frame and a future we think we can glimpse. This book contains some of Australia's most important writers as well as others who will become so, along with a striking introduction by one of Australia's foremost poet-critics, David McCooey.'

Fast emerging as one of the most brilliant waves of poetry in Australian literary history, Thirty Australian Poets is a groundbreaking anthology that captures the spirit of a generation of poets who, between them, have won every major poetry award and made the renaissance of Australian poetry impossible to ignore.

Felicity Plunkett is Poetry Editor at UQP and a widely published reviewer (e.g. Age, Australian, Australian Book Review, Sydney Morning Herald, and Canberra Times) whose poetry and short fiction have won prizes and been produced for radio. She has a PhD from the University of Sydney, and worked at the universities of Sydney and Queensland. Plunkett's debut collection, Vanishing Point, won the Thomas Shapcott Poetry Prize and was shortlisted for the Judith Wright Prize, the West Australian Premier's Book Awards and the Anne Elder Award. Her most recent book of poetry is Seastrands, published in Vagabond Press's Rare Objects series.

Thirty Australian Poets
UQP
Edited By: Felicity Plunkett
ISBN: 9780702239144
Price: $27.95