'Dominic Kirwan's latest collection of poetry Spreading the Bad Word is jaw-droppingly delicious and I say that as someone who does not usually consider myself a fan of the genre. Like a lot of people I thought of poetry as the realm of greeting cards and teenage girls but this is some great grown-up stuff. Kirwan is a master ......
'David Kelly has an uncanny ability to dissect the most mundane moments with unexpected bursts of insight. Laced with David's bizarre sense of humour quartet is a collection of poetry like no other. It tantalises the senses and makes you reach deep into your own humanity to reflect upon snippets of time real or imagined. From the ......
Midnight Radio explores the complex landscape of intimate attachments offering nuanced original perspectives on the ambiguities that pervade them. The collection reflects a clear-eyed intelligence and a sensibility at once ironic and vulnerable. Often conversational in tone satisfyingly varied these compact yet multi-layered poems ......
Warning: do not buy this book if all you want is a boring travel guide. Buy it only if you are interested in personal reflections and observations mostly sane but some completely insane history and the odd poem for good measure put together in 2022 in the post Covid lockdown era when I travelled from Port Albert to the tip of Cape York and ......
Incidental Dreams from a Myoclonic Jerk is Joe Bugden's first published collection of short stories. The collection is inhabited by characters drawn from unexceptional circumstances whose lives are touched by love and loss by regret and remorse and who are placed in small and domestic settings as an examination of the everyday and ......
The almost inescapable presence of TV advertising and social media in our lives means we are being constantly bombarded by information. News can be about devastation by natural forces or the unspeakable atrocities of man's inhumanity to his fellow beings. We are exposed to the appalling behaviour of so-called world leaders and wonder why our ......
Each stage in a person's life comes with different thoughts and feelings about life. For instance it's often thought that the impressionability and sometimes impulsiveness of youth gives way to the sober reflections of mature age. Poetry is the perfect medium for capturing the evocations of different stages. The 'journey' of artists may also ......
'Seasoned poets Jean McArthur and Linda M. Walker have captured the earthy and the ethereal. Keen observers of people of moods past and present they have splayed their poems to weave a strong poetic narrative where "stories patch/together bits and pieces". Through highly-charged language and rich imagery Weather Eyes takes us on a ......
A care worker's unwise interest in a dementia client leads him into a dark labyrinth. A man intent on suicide happens on his doppelganger. An abandoned woman wonders whether her lover's crime might prove his love. Eight new stories to beguile and captivate.
