The Best Australian Poems 2013

‘What characterises Australian poetry now is its variousness … Here are collage poems with a confessional impulse, short short stories, late surrealist couplets, poems that weave satire and lyric together, fragmentary essays in epistles, metaphysical pastorals, epic narratives glimpsed through keyhole lyrics, and lyrics that explode the idea of what a lyric can say, and be.’ —Lisa Gorton

This engaging collection presents the outstanding Australian poems of the last year – a fascinating array of voices and styles, subjects and moods. Including many of Australia’s most admired literary figures as well as exciting newcomers, The Best Australian Poems 2013 celebrates the wonder and diversity of language.

Poets include: Les Murray, Judith Beveridge, Dan Disney, Ann Vickery, David Malouf, Michael Brennan, John Kinsella, Maria Takolander, Pam Brown, David Musgrave, Mandy Sayer, John Tranter, Tracy Ryan, Kate Middleton, Robert Adamson, Vivian Smith, Clive James, Ouyang Yu, Lachlan Brown, Gig Ryan, Kate Lilley, Joanne Burns, L. K. Holt, Jill Jones, Chris Wallace-Crabbe and many more …

Lisa Gorton’s first poetry collection, Press Release, was shortlisted for the Melbourne Prize Best Writing Award and the Mary Gilmore Poetry Prize, and was awarded the Victorian Premier’s Prize for poetry. She has also been awarded the Vincent Buckley Poetry Prize. This year her second poetry collection, Hotel Hyperion, will be published by Giramondo and her novel, Establishment, will be published by Scribe.