PS Cottier

Between smug and shocked
she clutched at anthologies —
straws in a cocktail

The anthology being clutched by the poet, drunk on literature and (mostly) wine was launched in Melbourne last week.  I read at the launch in the Athenaeum Library, and Melbourne Books arranged a really cool event.  I had a great champagne beforehand at the sort of bar Melbourne does so well, also in Collins Street, as I hate to read totally sober.

Good to meet the editor/mixologist of Award Winning Australian Writing, Chloe Brien, and some fellow ingredients.  (I am usually an olive, although lemon twist or even crème de something unspeakable is not unknown.)

I also attended the Australian Catholic University’s Poetry Awards, and you can read the results here.  They also produced a book of the short-listed entries, but I am unsure if that is available for sale.

AWAW would make a really good gift, as everyone will like at least some of the work included.  I’ve just started reading the anthology, and there’s a lot to appreciate. Particularly the poem that starts on page 203, she said modestly.  Everyone will love the taste of that.

I was also just short-listed and published in the Hunter Writers Centre Grieve anthology, and look forward to reading that one as well.  I won’t probably use so many alcohol metaphors about that anthology.