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

Andrew has been invited to read his poetry at The Gods cafe at the Australian National University in Canberra on Tuesday, 10th August. The poetry reading will start at 8.00 pm.

Dinner: Light meals are available from 6pm.
Please book at The Gods on 6248 5538.
Patrons intending to eat are asked to arrive by 6.30 to ensure that the readings can begin at 8pm.

Seating is limited to 80 people.
To be sure of hearing a particular poet it is advisable to eat at the venue beforehand but ‘listening only’ ‘non-eating’ seats can also be booked.

Organiser Geoff Page
– book directly by phoning the Gods Café/Bar
Tel.6248 5538
— or email Geoff if you want to join one of his tables at gpage40@bigpond.net.au

Andrew’s poem “Boat” is one of 22 poems recorded on a newly released CD titled “22”. “Boat”, from Andrew’s book Fontanelle, is read by Andrew himself.

Produced by writingWA in collaboration with the Western Australian Department of Education and with investment from the Western Australian Department of Culture and the Arts, “22” is a poetry resource that has been developed for use in secondary schools in Western Australia.

The resource comprises an audio CD featuring 20 Western Australian poets reading selected works.

The CD is supported with an accompanying text publication, in addition to individual lesson plans relating to each of the 22 poems featured on the CD.  The lesson plans have been developed specifically to assist teachers to make maximum use of the resource in the classroom.

The Lesson Plans can be downloaded as a pdf from the writingWA website here.

The May 2010 issue of Quadrant magazine contains a review by Hal Colebatch of Andrew’s latest poetry collection, Birds in Mind: Australian Nature Poems. The review, titled “Resonance in the Natural World”, begins:

Andrew Lansdown is one of a very small handful of West Australians who, for more than 30 years, has committed himself steadfastly to writing, with poetry a major part of his output. His many books include the popular series of children’s adventures beginning with With My Knife, and collections of essays. He has recently launched a website and has an impressive collection of literary prizes. He has, from his first work, established a distinctive and individual voice.

Birds in Mind, a very substantial collection of 224 pages, consists mainly of “nature” poems, of birds, fish, flowers and animals, often with a Japanese cast to them. “Lansdown spices the world with pinches of finches,” according to Les Murray. However many of these have deeper resonances behind them, such as the grim “Poised on a Premonition” and the equally grim “Blowfish” …

The full review can be found on this website here. It can be read on the Quadrant website here.

The Australian Poetry Centre has invited Andrew to be a guest of the Salt on the Tongue Poetry Festival in Goolwa, South Australia. Andrew will give two readings at the Festival, which will run over the ANZAC weekend, from 23-26 April.

Festival details can be viewed on the APC website at http://www.australianpoetrycentre.org.au/?page_id=846 

The full program can be viewed/downloaded at http://www.australianpoetrycentre.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/full-goolwa-program.pdf

Andrew has been invited to read poetry at Voicebox on Thursday, 4 February 2010.

Voicebox is a monthly poetry reading run by Josephine Clarke at the Tropicana Cafe in High Street (near the Victoria Hall), Fremantle. The readings start at 7.30 pm.

Andrew will read from his new collection of poetry, Birds in Mind. Come and hear him!

Recently noticed, this comment about (among others) Andrew published in The Australian newspaper earlier this year and written by the esteemed Austalian poet, Geoffrey Lehmann:

 

If I were to prepare an alphabetical list of Australian poets who are outstanding and whose first books have been published since 1980, my list would be ridiculously long. It would have to include Judith Beveridge, Kevin Brophy, Elizabeth Campbell, Caroline Caddy, Jennifer Compton, Tricia Dearborn, Stephen Edgar, Peter Goldsworthy, Philip Hodgins, Carol Jenkins, Andrew Lansdown, Anthony Lawrence, Bronwyn Lea, Emma Lew, Stephen McInerney, Homer Reith, Gig Ryan, Philip Salom, Andrew Sant, Shen, Craig Sherborne and Alex Skovron. Some of these poets are very different from each other and might look askance at their bedfellows. But all have written memorable and exciting poems. 

Quoted from “New poets mine rich seam of language”, Geoffrey Lehmann, The Australian, 21 February 2009 (emphasis added)