An interview with Kelly Weber, author of We Are Changed to Deer at the Broken Place

The author of We Are Changed to Deer at the Broken Place talks about her latest book and how it evolved, her composition process, on writing about alternative erotics in kindship with the ecological world and in platonic relationships, on family stories that directly and indirectly teach about power dynamics, gender and sexuality expectations, and wounds, mythology and symbolism, and lots more.

A review of The Misconceiver by Lucy Ferriss

It’s gobsmacking how much author and prognosticator Lucy Ferris got right in this book, first published in 1997 and reissued in the wake of the Supreme Court’s reversal of Roe vs. Wade. Ubiquitous online access, electronic payments, electric vehicles, environmental destruction, codified discrimination against gays and lesbians — the Lucy Ferris of the 1990s foresaw this current, fraught decade with uncanny accuracy.

A review of Bad Art Mother By Edwina Preston

There is so much about this book that is compelling. It manages to be both funny and tragic at the same time, without stereotypes or polemic. Though there are moments of bad behaviour on the part of pretty much every character, nothing is over-simplified. There are as many different ways to create art, from Jo’s food or charity work, to the Mirka Mora styled murals of Jo’s waitress Rosa, or the ikebana flower arrangements of Mrs Parish, as there are ways to be a partner, a parent, or a patron. 

A review of And to Ecstasy by Marion Mossammaparast

One of the poet’s salient concerns is life, the fragility of life, death as well the afterlife. I was fascinated about the metaphysical aspects of her works, works that are coloured by the brush of mythology, philosophy and religion. In this beautiful collection of poems she utilises many literary devices with extraordinary skills. Her voice is strong as a sirocco yet is gentle as a resting heartbeat.

On Writing and Failure by Stephen Marche

Nobody needs a manuscript. Nobody needs a short story. Or a poetry collection. Or the next great American novel. Recounting James Baldwin’s advice in the Paris Review to ‘Write. Find a way to keep alive and write,’ Marche distills the bulk of dozens of pages of wisdom into four words: discipline, love, luck, and endurance. But these can all be distilled to endurance.

A review of the Driftwood Press 2023 Anthology edited by James McNulty & Jerrod Schwarz

The study of process aspect was, at times, quite fascinating and provided greater context to some pieces that either confirmed or clarified my thoughts, or helped me understand more about pieces I didn’t quite grasp the meaning or intention of. In the case of pieces such as Bark On and the poems of Margaret Yapps the fact that they were extracts of larger works explained to me why I felt they were incomplete.

A review of Moon Wrasse by Willo Drummond

All sorts of colours flicker through the book, but particularly blue, from the aqua shore to Iris’ that fall, blue as the rare blue moon, the blue of hope in an indigo night, the bluest carbon of our breath, Brisbane blue, a blue man suit, bluebottles, autumn blue, and of course the blue of the Moon Wrasse also known as the Blue Wrasse. Drummond’s blues are luminescent and rare shades, not normally the colour of a moon, a suit, or autumn, but nocturnally accurate, confounding tropes.