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All That Could Be Lost: Sydney & Canberra
On 20 June, All That Could Be Lost, Melanie Jansen’s debut poetry collection, will be formally launched by eminent poet and 5Islands Press Managing Editor, Mark Tredinnick, at the beautiful Woollahra Gallery at Redleaf. We invite you to join us for an evening of poetry and conversation. Imagine a child is fighting for life in intensive care. Imagine that you need to decide how--and sometimes whether--to treat that child. Imagine how it feels to tell the parents the crisis is
1 day ago
Melanie Jansen and Steve Meyrick @ Readings
Dr Melanie Jansen is a paediatric intensive care specialist, and her powerful poems explore the emotional landscape of this demanding but rewarding work, as well as the challenges and joys of the private life that must be lived alongside her professional one. Steve Meyrick's wide-ranging and deeply reflective collection provides the perfect foil. Why not join us when they read from and discuss these two quite different books, and find surprising touchpoints that connect them,
May 3
Reading in the City (your place of first resort)
On 15 May, join us at Westwords for the Parramatta launch of Elizabeth Walton’s How to Read a City: Your Place of Last Resort. Elizabeth is an emerging literary writer and cross-disciplinary artist and performer. Elizabeth will read from and discuss her book with celebrated author, Suzanne Leal, providing a glimpse into its ideas, writing process, and themes. This will be followed by with readings from two more 5 Islands poets, Hemat Malak and Kai Jensen, followed by an open
Apr 30
A Gray Day Out
By a very happy coincidence, Australian Book Review chose to publish Mark Tredinnick's excellent essay on Robert Gray in the same week as 5 Islands Press opened submissions the 2026 Robert Gray Prize for poetry. Mark, as some of you will know, knew Robert Gray well, and was a great admirer and promoter of his work. Last year, he conceived, coordinated and edited Bright Crockery Days —a festschrift in Gray's honour. Twenty-four literary luminaries each contributed an essay on
The Ease of Eggs: Nourishment for the Soul
This week, we celebrate the arrival of Benjamin Dodd's third poetry collection, The Ease of Eggs . The world Dodds witnesses and recalls in these tidy, playful lyric poems has a dignity and courtesy and unexpected kindness. And what a various, surprising and surprisingly tender world it is. As Carol Jenkins has written: "This book ... is a cabinet of the eclectic: school observations, the universe at large, men and gender, cinematic culture, science at work. But always we a
Definitely A Woman We Should Listen To
A Woman Talks to Her Tongue speaks of a family, its secrets and silences, unacknowledged griefs and inherited traumas. Written from the point of view of the fifth child in a complex family, the early poems catch and release a few moments in a daughter’s life, from her early childhood to parenthood. The second section of the book is a kind and passionate cry for truth-telling, femininity and creativity, and includes a series of remarkable monologues that examine silence and b
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