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Melanie Jansen @ Earp Distilling, Newcastle
Dr Melanie Jansen returns to NSW in November, with a launch at Earp Distillery in Newcastle. Melanie is a paediatric intensive care specialist. All That Could Be Lost, Melanie's debut collection, will take you to the frontlines of the heart. It leads us into domains of experience to which most of us are strangers, and make us think about what it is like to be there; and to think about them, as Yeats urged, not with “the thoughts men think in the mind alone” but with thought
11 hours ago
Cleared for Take-off at the Avid Reader
On 29 October, we will celebrate the first collaboration of 5Islands Press with the much-loved Brisbane bookshop, Avid Reader, when we launch Maree Reedman’s book, Clear Air Turbulence. Maree’s book is a treat for anyone who enjoys poetry that says what it means and says it well. Don't expect gnomic utterances or fancy technical acrobatics. Do expect to laugh, to cry and to be astonished. Maree Reedman's debut collection is truly poetry for everyone--her highly crafted poems
Oct 6
An Outstanding Evening of Poetry
Join us for an outstanding evening of poetry, with readings from three fine poets, followed by discussion of their latest works. There will be wine, nibbles and questions after the reading. Linda Godfrey, one of Australia’s finest practitioners of the short form, will read from her collection Tannic Skin & Sweet Flesh (5Islands Press, 2026), which charts the shifting terrain of culture, place, and inheritance: a mosaic of the alluring, haunting, beautiful, and bizarre. Fasten
Oct 4
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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