Andrew’s essay, “Reading and Reflecting on Haiku”, which was recently published in Zest, the online magazine of the Australian Poetry Centre, is now available on this website. Click here to read the essay.
Les and 3 Andrews
Australian poets Les Murray, Andrew Taylor, Andrew Burke and Andrew Lansdown enjoyed a chinwag over coffee at Andrew Taylor’s house in Mount Lawley (WA) in March 2008. Andrew L was surprised recently to find photographs of that gathering on Andrew B’s blogsite, Hi Spirits (http://hispirits.blogspot.com/search?q=Andrew+Lansdown). One of the photographs is reproduced below, having been brazenly lifted from Hi Spirits:
Poets Les Murray (left) and Andrew Lansdown (right)
Photographed by poet Andrew Burke at poet Andrew Taylor‘s house in March 2008
Poem on Hi Spirits blogsite
In October (2008) Andrew Burke asked several fellow Western Australian poets, including Andrew Lansdown, to provide a poem-with-comments for his blogsite, Hi Spirits (http://hispirits.blogspot.com/). Andrew L sent Andrew B the poem “Finishing Up”, which Andrew B (confusing, isn’t it!) posted on 22 September 2008. The poem and brief explanatory comments are posted below:
Finishing Up
Nightfall … and I am still here
in the school at the prison farm.My children will be at the table, filling
their mouths with food and chatter.And the littlest one will be asking
her mother, “Where is Daddy?”I am where my resignation
has led me. My roguish studentsare in the compound, locked up
for the night. Except for the sentriesthe guards are gone. I am alone,
finishing up. Did I miss someonewhen I said goodbye? Does it matter?
We have been good to one another,these bad men and I. I try not
to think I will never see them again.I am alone. I look out the window.
The forest is in silhouette.On the lawn, almost dissolved
in the dusk, a young kangaroohunches on its haunches to graze.
It was not there a moment ago andin a moment when I open the door
it will not be there again.
Although “Finishing Up” was published for the first time in Quadrant magazine in March this year [2008], it is a poem that I began writing in 1987. At the time, I didn’t feel the poem was good enough to publish and I couldn’t work out how to make it good enough. However, I did feel it had “something” and so I kept it in a file with other “almost” poems. I came back to it last year [2007] and substantially revised it into its present form. And I am pleased with it now.
The gist of the poem is clear from the text of the poem. But a few specific details may be of interest. I was at the time the education officer-in-charge of the education centre at Barton’s Mill Prison Farm. The farm held minimum security male prisoners and was located near Pickering Brook in Western Australia. I had been granted leave without pay for a year in order to write a book on the Swan waterways with the painter Donald Green. The poem picks up on my mood as I stayed late to pack up my things on the last day at the prison.
© Andrew Lansdown
The Red Dragon wins the Hoffman Award
Andrew’s fantasy novel, The Red Dragon, has won the Hoffman Award, which is part of the West Australian Young Readers Book Award (WAYRBA).
WAYRBA is a readers’ choice award, organised on a statewide basis for young readers. The Award has two broad categories: Younger Readers and Older Readers. Children and youths are invited to nominate, through their libraries, recently published books of fiction that they have enjoyed. These nominations are then considered by the WAYRBA committee and the two lists are drawn up. Young people are then asked to read titles on the lists and evaluate them as ”terrific”, “good”, “okay” or “awful”. (Information taken from the WAYBRA website: http://www.wayrba.iinet.net.au.)
The Hoffman Award is given to the highest ranked Australian/Western Australian book on the young readers’ list. This year, thanks to the “terrific” votes of West Australian young readers, the Hoffman Award has been given to The Red Dragon!
Andrew accepted the award in person, and gave a reading from The Red Dragon, at the WAYRBA Awards Presentation Night at the Subiaco Theatre on Friday 24th October.
The Red Dragon is published by Omnibus Books/Scholastic Australia and is the third novel in the Chronicles of Klarin trilogy. The other novels are With My Knife and Dragonfox.
Poem in Quadrant
Just released – new edition of Waking and Always
Picaro Press has just released the new edition of Andrew’s 1987 poetry collection, Waking and Always.
The book is published as part of Picaro Press’s Art Box Series, which “aims to provide low-cost access to significant Australian poetry titles which, for whatever reason, are no longer generally available to the public.”
The new edition of Waking and Always can be ordered through this website (download an order form) or through the publisher’s website at: www.picaropress.com. RRP $15.00.
Haiku in the Weekend Australian
The Weekend Australian newspaper published Andrew’s haiku sequence, “Mosquito Haiku”, in its “Review” pages on 26-27 July 2008.
Mosquito Haiku
i
Might as well tow
a bright sign as that high sound,
doomed mosquito!
ii
A round of applause
for the mozzie skywriting with
sound instead of smoke!
iii
Off and on all night,
a miniature winged syringe
disturbing my dreams.
iv
Ha, that mosquito
just heard the mystical sound
of two hands clapping!
v
I’m the only one
here—so it must be my blood
in the mosquito!
© Andrew Lansdown
5 poems & 2 stories in children’s anthology
Five of Andrew’s poems and two of his stories have been included in the newly released anthology, Grow: Under the Southern Cross, edited by Lyn Hurry and Anne Hamilton, with illustrations by Rowena Evans. The anthology contains poems, stories and activities for children and young teenagers by various Australian and New Zealand writers. It is especially suited for classroom and homeschool use.
The book also comes with a CD that contains readings of ten poems and eight stories. One of Andrew’s poems and one of his stories are included on the CD.
Copies of Grow: Under the Southern Cross can be purchased for $29.95 from Writerlynks GROW Magazine, P.O. Box 603, Kenmore, Qld 4069. For further information, email growmag@bigpond.com.
Haiku on ABC Poetica program
ABC Radio National recently broacast a two-part series on “Australian Haiku”. Described as “A detailed exploration of this burgeoning poetic form with some of Australia’s leading practitioners”, the series was produced by Ron Sims for Radio National’s Poetica program.
Twenty-six of Andrew’s haiku, along with excerpts of an interview he did with Ron Simms, were included in the series.
“Australian Haiku – Part 1″ was broadcast on Saturday 21 June and again on Thursday 26 June. “Australian Haiku – Part 2″ was broacast on Saturday 28 June and again on Thursday 3 July. Both parts of “Australian Haiku” can be heard on the ABC’s website at: http://www.abc.net.au/rn/poetica/.
8th printing of With My Knife
Andrew’s fantasy novel, With My Knife, has gone into an eighth print run. Omnibus Books (an imprint of Scholastic Australia) reissued the book at the end of May 2008.
With My Knife is the first novel in the trilogy, The Chronicles of Klarin. The other two novels (which have also gone into additional print runs) are: Dragonfox and The Red Dragon.