Australian Poetry Journal 7.2

Publisher Note

Welcome to Australian Poetry Journal 7.2 – ‘work’, published with the support of the Australia Council for the Arts. Guest-editors Benjamin Laird and Cassandra Atherton have written a fascinating introduction on the provocation of the theme, this single word – work! – and the multiplicity of poetic responses to it: “We are reminded in putting this volume together that the intersection between ‘work’ and ‘poetry’ is, itself, a work in progress, and one that continues to build momentum.”

APJ 7.2 also publishes separately outstanding poems by ten poets who were commissioned and presented for New Shoots Victoria – a project in partnership with Red Room Poetry, Australian Poetry, Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria and Melbourne Writers Festival 2017.

Check Page 60 for a map of the self-guided ‘poetry trail’ now in place at the Botanic Gardens in Melbourne following MWF 2017 – you can listen to the poems via the SoundCloud here. 

And if you happen to be in the actual environs of the Gardens, you can phone-download the app, map and the trail – created by Red Room Poetry – and listen to the poets while winding along its ways. Click here to do so.

We also publish the three poems commissioned for the Voices of the Trees project for the Digital Writers’ Festival 2017, Australian Poetry being in partnership here with the Emerging Writers’ Festival and Red Room.

Recordings from the Voices of Trees poets can be found via The Digital Writers Festival by clicking here.

The whole volume, involving this shining clan of poets, editors, partners and collaborators, has been an absolute pleasure to ‘work’ on. Enjoy!​

Jacinta Le Plastrier / Publisher