MEANJIN BACK ISSUE

Poetics
Vol 60, no. 2, 2001

To write poetry is to make sense of living. To write about poetry is to stimulate the horizons around poetry: its places and methods of production, its ash and butterflies
—Kate Fagan

This special issue of Meanjin, commissioned by Stephanie Holt and Peter Minter, takes as its focus poetry and writing about poetry. It features the second part of John Kinsella's interview with Les Murray, as well as an interview with Adam Aitken by Fiona Probyn. Aspects of contemporary poetry are explored in two forums: Kate Fagan asks six women poets 'Why and how does poetry matter?'; while performance poets and poets using the new media discuss their work in Peter Minter's forum 'Off [with] the page'. Martin Harrison looks at place and identity in recent Australian poetry, Alison Ravenscroft critiques the recent re-packaging of Kathleen Mary Fallon's Working Hot, while Darren Tofts explores the weird and wonderful world of 'tsk-tsk-tsk'.

POETRY FROM Lisa Bellear, Alison Croggon, Barry Hill, Patrick Jones, Anthony Lawrence, Les Murray, Gig Ryan, Samuel Wagan Watson and Ania Walwicz.

FICTION FROM Rachel Buchanan, Craig Cormick, Mireille Juchau and Tim Richards.

An added bonus this issue is the free spoken-word CD 'Enhancer', produced by Michael Farrell. It features fiction and poetry readings, as well as 'Escape Tune', a poem set to music and performed by Kieran Carroll and The Beautiful Few. Writers reading their work include: Natasha Cho, Kathleen Mary Fallon, Dominique Hecq, Emma Lew, David Prater, Gig Ryan and Jack Taylor.