The Darwin Poems has been shortlisted for the 2009 ALS Gold Medal for an outstanding work of literature from the previous year.
The list in alphabetical order is:
Emily Ballou, The Darwin Poems
Steven Carroll, The Lost Life
Eva Hornung, Dog Boy
Cate Kennedy, The World Beneath
David Malouf, Ransom
Category > Poetry
Australian Literary Society Gold Medal
Darwin as poet 2
I’ve been writing an essay on Darwin and metaphor and came across this entry from the ‘N’ notebook [Metaphysics and Expression] of 1838-39 (the line breaks are my own and the ellipses refer to a long break of text about Darwin’s children):
“Hope is the expectant eye.
looking to distant object, brightened
& moistened by emotion,–…
Expression of affection
is [...]
“While You Were Sleeping”
I finally saw the episode of ABC TV’s Bush Slam at Corryong, Victoria that I recorded last March, and discovered that my poem was edited by a third in the course of post-production. As I’ve had such nice comments from people about the poem, I thought I’d post it here in its entirety (though you can [...]
Ryan Van Winkle’s ‘The Apartment’
I promised a couple of months ago, to post Ryan Van Winkle’s poem and this is how slow I am! I blame my transcontinental lifestyle and flying between Australia and the UK twice in six weeks. But I am settled into the new year now, and although newly married and not personally struggling with cohabitation, [...]
Poets on ABC TV
In March, I participated in the ABC Australian TV series Bush Slam, an arts/travel/poetry program, hosted by HG Nelson, which follows poets to various small Australian towns and asks them to write a poem about the people and place over three days. I went to Corryong in Victoria, a town set near the Snowy Mountains, [...]
Interview on the Darwin Correspondence Project Website
I was interviewed this year by Dr. Paul White of the Darwin Correspondence Project for their website. Conducted in Cambridge, on the way back from the Sydney Writers’ Festival. You can listen to the interview on the website and also read the transcript (thanks to Sam Kuper).
I will also be reading next Wednesday Oct 28th [...]
Polarbear and Evolving Words–Darwin200
Polarbear and Evolving Words–UK-based performance poet Polarbear has worked with local writers to create spoken word pieces about evolutionary theory. They’ll be performing on July 9th 8 p.m. at The Junction in Cambridge. This is part of Darwin200, a national (and frankly international) festival celebrating Charles Darwin and his ideas around the 200th anniversary of [...]
Poems as Archeology
I just received this poem from an old friend on my email. It is a poem I wrote, years ago, typed out on my typewriter and which she has kept for fifteen years. What a strange a precious object to receive, scanned against the stark white background of my email, worn and crinkled like an [...]
Happy Birthday Charles Darwin
If I post this now, ten minutes to midnight on February 12, 2009, I can still officially say Happy Birthday. But then again I’m now in London, and in Australia, his birthday ended ten hours ago. I’ve just returned from the Natural History Museum’s Birthday Celebration, where the white marble statue of a be-seated Darwin [...]
Poems about Darwin’s Life
Well everything is getting crazy here as I finalise the last proof-pages of The Darwin Poems, my verse-portrait of Charles Darwin’s inner mind, work and life, in preparation for their publication the first week of April. It is late days to discover I have not entirely solved for myself my philosophy of the comma in poetry; [...]
