Quadrant magazine has published Andrew’s “Tanka about Pain” in its January-February 2011 issue. You can read the four-tanka sequence on the Quadrant website at http://www.quadrant.org.au/magazine/issue/2011/1/tanka-about-pain
Andrew’s latest poetry collections on Christmas reading list
Quadrant Online has published the recommendations of various eminent Australians visa vi books to read over the Christmas holidays. In his “Christmas Books” recommendations, Hal Colebatch states:
Andrew Lansdown has published two excellent collections of poetry recently, Far from home, “poems of faith, grief and gladness” and Birds in Mind, both with Wombat publications. Unlike so many modern works, mired in the poet’s own state of mind, these celebrate life, both of the world and the spirit.
Read Colebatch’s other recommendations here.
Andrew’s recommended poetry collections, Birds in Mind and Far from Home, can be ordered through this website here.
Four poems in Quadrant
Quadrant magazine has published four of Andrew’s poems in its December 2010 issue. One of the four is a gunsaku titled “Time to Write” and is reproduced here:
Time to Write
i
Distracted by
the lack of distractions in
the empty house.
ii
A ream of paper—
I feel intimidated
just looking at it.
iii
I have waited
for weeks for the writing time
I have wasted.
© Andrew Lansdown
The other three poems—”Samurai”, “Zebra Finches, Station Country” and “Suffering, Summer”—can be viewed on Quadrant Online at: https://www.quadrant.org.au/magazine/issue/2010/12
Poem in On-Line Anthology of WA Writers
You can read Andrew’s poem “Should I Fall and Fail to Rise” in the on-line antholgy, Western Australian Writing.
Edited by John Kinsella, this on-line anthology of Western Australian writing has been produced by the University of Western Australia Library and funded by AustLit: Australian Literature Gateway.
Poems in Westerly
Westerly, the literary magazine published by the Westerly Centre, the University of Western Australia, has published Andrew’s poem, “Elijah and the Ravens”. The poem consists of three dramatic monologues, which have been taken from a longer sequence of 32 dramatic monologues on the Old Testament prophet Elijah. The complete sequence, titled “The God of the Glimpses”, has just been published in Andrew’s latest poetry collection, Far from Home. One of the three dramatic monologues published in Westerly (Vol. 55, No. 2, November 2010) is written in the form of a triolette and is reproduced below:
The Raven
The raven is a black and craven bird,
a bird by the Law unclean.
Its carrion cry on the wind is heard –
the raven, that black and craven bird.
Yet it is the one the Lord by His word
has sent for my keep and keen.
Oh, the raven’s a black and craven bird,
a bird by the Law unclean!
© Andrew Lansdown
Poem in Island
The latest issue of Island magazine (# 122) contains one of Andrew’s poems, “Disturbance”. The poem can be viewed on Island‘s website at http://islandmag.com/122/poetry.html.
New Book – Far from Home
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Wombat Books has published a new collection of Andrew’s poems, titled Far from Home: Poems of faith, grief and gladness.
Far from Home contains over 180 poems, including a series of 32 dramatic monologues on the life of the prophet Elijah. Half the poems in this 224 page collection have been selected from Andrew’s earlier poetry collections, while the other half are previously uncollected.
Last year Wombat Books published a 224-page collection of Andrew’s nature poetry, Birds in Mind: Australian Nature Poems. Far from Home is a companion collection, and could be described as a collection of Andrew’s human nature poems.
Far from Home can be ordered through bookshops. It can also be ordered through this website for AUS $19.95 + $2.00 postage (within Aust). Download an order form.
Read five poems from Far from Home here.
Poem in Blue Dog
Blue Dog, the journal of the Australian Poetry Centre, has just published Andrew’s poem, “Depressions” (Volume 9, Number 17):
Depressions
i
Long ago, women …
the rock-pool rock remembers
their grass-seed grinding.
ii
Grooves in the granite …
the grinders, the grinding stones,
the ground seeds are gone.
iii
Strangely depressing—
these depressions in the stone
from bygone grinding.
© Andrew Lansdown, 2010
Andrew judges short story competition
Out of the Asylum Writers’ Group Inc invited Andrew to judge their 2010 Spilt Ink Short Story Competition. Andrew delivered his judgements at an awards lunch at the Fremantle Arts Centre on Firday 24 September. His Judge’s Report is reproduced below:
I would like to thank Josephine Clarke for inviting me on behalf of OOTA to judge the 2010 Spilt Ink Short Story Competition. I am honoured by the confidence and trust implicit in such an invitation.
I am pleased to report that the great majority of the stories entered in the competition were competently written. Most were tightly focused and expounded a single occurrence or followed a central line of events. Most had believable characters, interesting plots, and satisfying climaxes. Most had consistent style, tone and point-of-view. I commend the entrants for the quality of their stories.
The overall competence of the entries made judging the competition difficult. A judge’s work is always made easier when a number of the entries are poor. These entries can be spotted easily and quickly ruled out of the running. There is nothing subjective about this. Poor stories identify themselves because they fail to meet objective literary standards relating to characterisation, plot development, point-of-view, balance, restraint, consistency, originality and plausibility.
Andrew judges poetry prize
The Peter Cowan Writers Centre invited Andrew to judge the 2010 Patron’s Prize Literary Competition. Andrew delivered his Judge’s Report at a prize giving ceremony on Sunday afternoon, 12 September. The following is the text of his report:
I would like to thank the Peter Cowan Writers Centre for inviting me to judge the 2010 Patron’s Prize Literary Competition. I am honoured by your trust.
Seventy-eight poems were entered in the competition and they varied greatly in subject, theme, style and tone. They also varied considerably in literary quality. However, almost all the entries were intelligible and accessible, which is a commendable quality in poetry, or any other literary work. There was little evidence of poets pretending to be profound by being deliberately obscure.
Before announcing the prize winning and commended entries, I would like to make some comments on the entries generally.
I could not help but notice a recurrence of certain problems in many of the poems, and it may be useful to mention these. …