On Tuesday, I attended the launch of Wearne’s latest book of poetry Prepare the Cabin for Landing at the University of Wollongong.
A
blurb from the publisher Giramondo Publishing about the book:
Alan Wearne
is this country's most public poet, a master of the Australian idiom, the
recorder of its fashions, and the scourge of its big-noters, pretenders and
crooks. They are the targets of the central poem in this collection, 'The
Vanity of Australian Wishes', which draws on Samuel Johnson and Juvenal, 'who
must have known that combination of bemusement, annoyance, anger and despair to
which your country can drive you, though always with an eye to its
entertainment value and dramatic potential'. There is an affectionate portrait
of three high school teachers in suburban Melbourne in the early 1960s, satires
on the world of finance, the lifestyles of the beautiful people, and literary
intellectuals, as well as seven new poems based on Australian pop songs, with
Johnny O'Keefe and Shane Warne in starring roles.
Buy
the book here:
The
book was also be launched on Sunday 25th November at 4 pm at
Gleebooks: 49 Glebe Point Road, Glebe.
More
books by Alan Wearne: http://wikig.net/
Some
links to his work on Poetry International: http://www.poetryinternationalweb.net/pi/site/poet/item/13652/15/Alan-Wearne
Find
an interesting article here about his recent Grand Parade Poets project:
http://spunc.com.au/splog/post/an-accidental-publisher-alan-wearne-on-grand-parade-poets-and-christopher-bantick/Update:
In a recent article in Spectrum Magazine in the Sydney Morning Herald, the poet Peter Craven attempts untriumphantly to make sense of Wearne’s latest work: http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/books/taking-wing-on-a-flight-of-fancy-20130320-2gg0z.html
Update 17 July 2014:
An excellent informed review of Wearne's book by David Musgrave in the Sydney Review of Books appears here: http://www.sydneyreviewofbooks.com/fasten-your-seatbelts/
See also Martin Duwell’s erudite article in Australian Poetry Review
here: http://www.hotsdots.com/poetry/2013/03/alan-wearne-prepare-the-cabin-for-landing/
