PS Cottier

As I sit and constantly look up the spread of the bushfires, particularly on the South Coast of NSW where we’d usually be around now, I thought I’d reflect back on all my publications and readings this year to take my mind (and lungs) off the smoke. Here we go:

Participant, Living Studio, Belconnen Arts Centre, late 2018 (November) onwards. Reading at Centre, 12 March (star poems) ‘Living the Studio’.

Poem ‘On the couch’ published The Canberra Times, 2-3-19

Poem ’Two stroke or more’ published Not Very Quiet 4, March 2019. Read it at launch.

‘The Ashes, 3150 A.D.’ published Eye To The Telescope 32, US, April 2019, ‘Sports and Games’ edited Lisa Timpf.

Poems ‘Mining time’ and Excalibur’s Lament’ published in The Rhysling Anthology (US), 2019, edited David C. Kopaska-Merkel

Poem ’Transformation’ published The Mozzie, April 2019

Poem ‘The creature runs through the ice, pursued by Doctor Frankenstein’ published Cordite 91, Monster issue, edited Nathan Curnow, May 2019.

Poem ‘Freckles’ published Sponge, Issue 5, New Zealand, May 2019

Senryu ’turpsichore’ (deliberately spelt like that!) published The Mozzie, Volume 27, May 2019

Reading poem ‘Fry up’ for special event, Poetry. Science. Women: Celebrating the Amazing, Smiths, 17 June, 2019. To be published in Axon.

Poem ‘Mawson Expedition medicine chest, 1911’, written on commission for National Museum of Australia about that object in the Objects Gallery. To be read at Museum event in June (2019) and published on website.

Shortlisted ACU Poetry Prize, July 2019, theme ’Solace’. Published in chapbook.

Reading Manning Clark House, July 2019

Poem ‘The Ashes 3152 AD’ republished The New Zealand Cricket Bulletin July/August 2019 No. 597

Review Jack Charles: Born-again Blakfella by Jack Charles with Namila Benson published The Canberra Times, 31-8-19

Haiku ‘Aliens declutter’ published Scifaikuest, US, August 2019, Edited Teri Santitoro.

Reading at The House (ANU) August 2019

Poem ‘Mountain Pygmy-possum’, renamed ’Snow and heat’, in Mountain Secrets anthology, ed. Joan Fenney, Ginninderra Press, 2019. Read it at launch in Blackheath, Blue Mountains, November 2019.

Poem ‘The dusky grass wren’ published Not Very Quiet Issue 5, September 2019, edited Tricia Dearborn

Haiku ‘Angels picnic’ published in The Mozzie, September/October 2019 (received November)

Panellist, Conflux (Poetry) and also interviewed by Kaaron Warren for another panel, October 2019

Review of A Sharp Left Turn: Notes on a life in music, from Split Enz to Play It Strange by Mike Chunn published The Canberra Times, 26-10-19

‘The Most Loyal Servant and the Peas’ (story) published Antipodean SF, No 254, November 2019, and on radio show (my reading).

Review of Never Say Die: The Hundred-Year Overnight Success of Australian Women’s Football by Fiona Crawford and Lee McGowan published The Canberra Times 9-11-19

Review of Absolutely Bleeding Green: The Raiders Story by David Headon published The Canberra Times 23-11-19

Review of The Institute by Stephen King published The Canberra Times 24-11-19

‘Fry up’ published Axon: Creative Explorations, Vol 9, No 2, December 2019

Review of Maybe The Horse Will Talk by Elliot Perlman published The Canberra Times, 7-12-19

I’m happy that I’m doing quite a few reviews again, as it keeps you on your intellectual toes (now I’m picturing a brain in a tu-tu) and encourages you to think about how each book promises something, and whether it lives up to those implied promises. I really enjoyed reviewing the history of the Raiders and the history of women’s football in Australia; all I need now is a cricket book, and AFL.

I’ll definitely try and keep the reviewing up next year.

Next year I’ll be having two books published, both poetry.

Have a great Christmas, and let’s hope that there is still an inhabitable east coast of Australia after the next few months. (And SA, and WA, too.)