I‘m excited to be involved in setting up a new poetry reading in Katoomba at The Little Lost Bookshop (Hapenny Lane, 181 Katoomba St, Katoomba NSW 2780). I will be kicking off by reading, along with fellow Blue Mountains poet Justin Lowe, at the first Katoomba Winter Poetry Reading at 6.30pm on Thursday 19th June. There will also be an open reading.
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Both Justin and Mark will be reading from their recently published collections, San Luis, Puncher & Wattmann (Justin) and The Office of Literary Endeavours, Five Islands Press (Mark). Both books will be available to buy on the night.
Justin Lowe
Justin Lowe has been writing and publishing poetry for more than thirty years. This, his ninth collection and first with Puncher & Wattmann, is in part inspired by his formative years spent on the Spanish island of Menorca with his artist mother and younger sister. Justin was until recently editor of international poetry blog Bluepepper.
“Justin Lowe’s San Luis is a collection of veils, partly lifted or shifting in the breeze, providing glimpses of things perhaps not fully apprehended, of questions not answered. In poems that are wistful, nostalgic, remembrances, heartaches, Lowe probes a lifetime of the uncertainties of ‘this crooked little boy / with his warped view of time, / of belonging, / that never got truly mended.” – David Ades
“Such wide-ranging, strange narratives told with an ear for varied subject matter and formal structures. Tightly controlled, evocative and nuanced. An original and distinctive voice. Powerful and moving. In a word – brilliant.” – Mark O’Flynn
“Enter Justin Lowe’s San Luis, a lyric psychogeography embodying philosopher Gaston Bachelard’s observation that “inhabited space transcends geometrical space”. From a childhood spent in Spain to a life lived within the vast Australian landscape, Lowe’s poems inhabit temporal, spatial and imaginative realms with a keen, compassionate, finely crafted consciousness. These deeply human poems will find their home in you.” – Michele Seminara
Mark Roberts
For much of the last four decades, Mark Roberts has been involved in writing, criticism and publishing. In 1982, he established P76 magazine in with Adam Aitken and has been involved in small press publishing ever since. In 2011 he set up the on-line journal Rochford Street Review with Linda Adair, which has recently published its 41st issue.
The Office of Literary Endeavours is Mark’s third book, after Stepping out of Line (Rochford Street Press 1986) and Concrete Flamingos, (Island Press 2016).
“This is a book evidencing a life spent in appreciation of poetry, deep observation and participation in ecologies of many kinds. Discomfort is constant but there is succour and reprieve in kin and creative expression. The Office of Literary Endeavours is a wise and reverential book by a gentle and accomplished poet at a high point of their writing life”. –AMANDA JOY
“The poetry is carefully crafted and elegant. The subject matter wide ranging and richly brought to life within the forms Roberts has chosen. Reading through this collection has been a privilege and a delight”. –LES WICKS
“The Office of Literary Endeavours is a witty and insightful collection characterised by its lucidity. The strength of these poems lies in their interrogation of migration and colonisation through poignant familial memories that are never sentimental but always elegiac, with their critique of colonisation and account of Irish dispossession. A feature of the collection is the way it deftly navigates different moods, so that alongside the poems of migration and colonisation there are also poems about the landscape, the passion of lovers, old friendships, and favourite films. A sharply observant eye unites these poems into a cohesive manuscript of layered emotions and experiences.” –TINA GIANNOUKOS
“Roberts lends his deft touch to subjects and places both new and old, and specifically to what must always resonate as essential to the human condition–continuously, from pram to old age. In his shared memories, real and invented, ancient and modern, a jam jar or two might be shot for target practice, deadly snakes slung over wire fences, trains might be caught or missed. Here is subject matter to engage seasoned poetry readers, as well as keen students of Australian literature and cultural history: a lively content able to both re-trace and advance, often simultaneously”. –JOHN JENKINS
“The Office of Literary Endeavours is an excellent collection of poetry that demonstrates the poet’s range, skill, talent, experience and wisdom, along with his willingness to experiment with form (including lines, stanza structures and the shape of the poem) and to engage with crucial contemporary issues (such as Indigenous and non-Indigenous relationships to country) as well as European culture and history (as demonstrated through the sequence of poems inspired by films). The book is engaging, accessible, insightful, entertaining, witty and, at times, playful”. –NATHANAEL O’REILLY
If you can’t make it to the reading you can order both books directly from The Little Lost Bookshop.
There will also be an open mic section at the reading. Spaces will be limited so if you want to read please pre-register by completing the on-line form
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