The Kangaroo Farm
2nd Edition
Published on 22. May 2020
Book
Paperback/Softback
82 pages
978-1-84861-701-8 (ISBN)
Description
The Kangaroo Farm first appeared in Australia in 1997 and confirmed Martin Harrison's (1949-2014) reputation as one of Australia's finest poets. His poems of landscape and nature (and above all, Australian nature, in all its weird glory) offer the reader glimpses of an underlying meaning that mere tourism never can offer: "calm, intelligent, long-lined verse letters that engagingly bring us to a world where the 'sea-dusks are sea-dusks flowing far inland'", as Nigel Wheale pout it when reviewing the first edition for the London Review of Books.
"Harrison should be read as substantial Australian poet. His poetry is something new, something that opens up what poetry can be." -Petra White, Cordite Poetry Review
"This notion of work runs throughout Harrison's poetry. There is a sense that each poem is a hard-won moment of perception even while offering to the reader an enviable translucence, a clear vision of the world in its contingency and temporal flux. At the heart of these profound and ever-meticulously crafted poems, this long meditation into the mechanics of conception and perception, is the warmth and flesh of the complexity of life and being plainly spoken." -Michael Brennan
"Harrison should be read as substantial Australian poet. His poetry is something new, something that opens up what poetry can be." -Petra White, Cordite Poetry Review
"This notion of work runs throughout Harrison's poetry. There is a sense that each poem is a hard-won moment of perception even while offering to the reader an enviable translucence, a clear vision of the world in its contingency and temporal flux. At the heart of these profound and ever-meticulously crafted poems, this long meditation into the mechanics of conception and perception, is the warmth and flesh of the complexity of life and being plainly spoken." -Michael Brennan
Reviews / Votes
"This is fluent writing which is not pre-cast in any obvious ways and rarely brought up against its own mannerisms - calm, intelligent, long-lined verse letters that engagingly bring us to a world where the 'sea-dusks are sea-dusks flowing far inland'." -Nigel Wheale, London Review of BooksMore details
Series
Edition
2nd edition
Language
English
Place of publication
Exeter
United Kingdom
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
Thickness: 5 mm
Weight
134 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-84861-701-8 (9781848617018)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Born and educated in England, Martin Harrison (1949-2014) emigrated to Australia in the late 1970s after a period living in New Zealand. He had already published a slim collection with Ferry Press, and further chapbooks with Hawk Press in New Zealand. His first full-scale poetry collection, The Distribution of Voice (University of Queensland Press), was published in 1993. Throughout the 1980s Harrison worked as a literary journalist and reviewer, as well as a producer for ABC Radio.
The first edition of The Kangaroo Farm (Paper Bark Press, 1997) was shortlisted for the Victorian Premier's Award, and the follow-up, Summer (Paper Bark Press, 2001), won the Wesley Michel Wright Prize in Poetry from the University of Melbourne. His new and selected poems, Wild Bees, was published by the University of Western Australia Press in Perth, and by Shearsman Books in the UK in 2008. The Australian edition was shortlisted for two major Australian prizes. UWA went on to publish his posthumous collection, Happiness, in 2015. Martin Harrison also wrote essays on Australian literature, some of which were collected in Who Wants to Create Australia? (Halstead Press), a volume which was a Times Literary Supplement book of the year selection for 2004.
The first edition of The Kangaroo Farm (Paper Bark Press, 1997) was shortlisted for the Victorian Premier's Award, and the follow-up, Summer (Paper Bark Press, 2001), won the Wesley Michel Wright Prize in Poetry from the University of Melbourne. His new and selected poems, Wild Bees, was published by the University of Western Australia Press in Perth, and by Shearsman Books in the UK in 2008. The Australian edition was shortlisted for two major Australian prizes. UWA went on to publish his posthumous collection, Happiness, in 2015. Martin Harrison also wrote essays on Australian literature, some of which were collected in Who Wants to Create Australia? (Halstead Press), a volume which was a Times Literary Supplement book of the year selection for 2004.