Join us to celebrate the launch of The Lowlands of Moyne by Brendan Ryan. The collection of poetry will be launched by poet and publisher, Alan Wearne.
The launch will be preceded by readings from Jane Williams and A. Frances Johnston.
Brendan Ryan’s sixth collection of poetry, The Lowlands of Moyne, continues his exploration of Western District landscapes through poetry which closely examines the relationship between farmers and farm animals. The title poem of the collection recreates the hardships and joys of his father’s upbringing in the small township of Moyne in the 1940s. There are also portraits of a farmer’s wife, a blind violin player and of two farmers milking cows for the first time in a landscape of tussocks and ferns. Not only, does Ryan return to the paddocks of the farm at Panmure that he grew up on, he also moves beyond the Western District to pay homage to Vietnam and remote Aboriginal communities while allowing memory and narrative to coalesce in gritty odes to the smells of paddocks. This is poetry about farming grounded in experience and empathy.
About Brendan Ryan
Brendan Ryan grew up on a dairy farm at Panmure in Western Victoria. His poetry, reviews and essays have been published in literary journals and newspapers, including Island, Westerly, Antipodes, The Age, The Weekend Australian, The Best Australian Poems series (Black Inc) and Contemporary Australian Poetry (Puncher and Wattman). The author of six collections of poetry, Travelling Through the Family, was shortlisted for the 2014 Victorian Premier’s Awards. His latest collection of poetry is titled, The Lowlands of Moyne (Walleah Press).