Past Event

Launch of THE KEEPER OF FISH and KEEPING CARTER edited by PHILIP SALOM

Presenter: Puncher & Wattmann
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Two new poets with dubious backgrounds launch their first collections. Philip Salom has put his editorial help and his forewords in support of these two 'new voices' from Melbourne. Amazing new poets, says Salom, who are always trying it on.

Alan Fish was writing poetry before his life went dark. He let it collect like a tank of rain-water. His subject matter? Love and death. His poetry is deeply haunted and lyrical in its privacy but also ironically observant and public – after all, he is not only a lover, but a flaneur. He can snap his fingers. He can play Go. Alan Fish left his basement in the Print Room, left his Keepers behind him and struck out on his own. His work is seriously beautiful, or beautifully serious, in its imagery and shadows; he is in some ways lost, but he is no push-over.  

A new poet on the block, MA Carter is uncaring of the niceties and the pat expressions of much poetry within the status quo – instead, Carter is mordant, immoderate, opinionated and likely to offend. He writes in a style that is distinctly musical and even lyrical but his observations stray wildly and eccentrically from the expected. His poems don't mind being rude, or chauvinistic, even a bit scary. He admits this will not make him popular or admired, but he doesn't care for popular or admired, he prefers to say what he thinks and be done with it.

To be launched by Professor Ross Bennett.