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.

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.

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.

CLICK HERE TO READ ANDREW’S FULL REPORT

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. …

CLICK HERE TO READ ANDREW’S FULL REPORT