The Multiple Effects of Entropy
POEMS
Kate Lumley
Publication date
ISBN:
October
2026
978-1-923248-32-8
About the author
KATE LUMLEY was born in Brisbane. She was raised in Cootamundra and Kenmore, near Goulburn, NSW and now lives in Sydney on the lands of the Wangal people of the Eora Nation, where many of these poems have been written. Kate graduated from the University of Sydney with a BA (Hons) in English literature and the University of Technology with first-class honours in law. While poetry has always been her first love, Kate has worked for a living as a music tutor, editor, legal researcher and writer, and in continuing judicial education. Kate’s poetry has been published in various journals, reviews, anthologies
and chapbooks. The Multiple Effects of Entropy is Kate Lumley’s debut collection.
About the book
Kate Lumley's restless mind ranges freely over a wide domain: from the intimate to the public and political; from the bones of a spine to the bones of a house; from wind turbines to Antarctic krill. But wherever we roam in her debut collection, The Multiple Effects of Entropy, three things stand out—the lack of ostentation, the keen intelligence and the scrupulous, quiet attention to getting each poem exactly right.
Kate's poems are modest in the very best sense of the word. They display the diffidence that characterises a commitment to truth, wherever it may be found—a refusal to be blinded by presumptions and preconceptions, a determination to be receptive to what can be learned, and to the changes that can be wrought, when we open our eyes to the other. The honesty and integrity of this work is so striking that it is hard to avoid the impression that the poems are making Kate Lumley as much as Kate Lumley is making the poems. The result, as John Foulcher writes, is a "debut collection of exceptional quality."
Kate Lumley’s poetry is beguiling, nuanced and very well crafted. Never hectoring or grandstanding, her work powerfully explores social and political issues as well as the intensely personal. The poems betray an unflinching humility in tone and voice: Lumley never promotes herself as arbiter of experience but lets such experience speak for itself in imagery that’s always fresh and startlingly accurate and in lines that delight with a spare, minimalist sense of music. Poem after poem leaps from the page; it’s a book that’s difficult to put down. The Multiple Effects of Entropy is a debut collection of exceptional quality.
—JOHN FOULCHER
At a time when our creative arts are experiencing enormous challenges and our world existential threats, it is even more important to listen to our poets. Kate Lumley’s poems speak of humanity’s reasons for being, searching our deepest truths and lingering doubts, giving voice to the voiceless. We are invited to observe, reflect and discern, connect with other ways of seeing, witness people and places challenging us to know who we are and why we are here. These poems speak strongly to our violent past, fragile present and uncertain future on this one precious planet. Kate Lumley’s poetry is delicate, finely-crafted and powerful. Truly, “ideas are reborn.”
—PAUL GROVER
The weaving in The Multiple Effects of Entropy is subtle; it would be a mistake to walk on past it. Stop, immerse yourself and be profoundly enriched. Lumley says “the ordinary becomes sacred”—this is exactly what happens when one immerses oneself in this book. If there’s such a thing as a gentle, unyielding humanity you’ll find it here.
—LES WICKS
“Solace is the night hum of crickets/frogs drumming their bodhrans”: these clear, cadenced, understated, and striking lines typify the craft of the poems of Kate Lumley as she draws us into the joys, sorrows and uncertainties of her life—and ours. The Multiple Effects of Entropy is a fine debut collection.
—ANDREW LANSDOWN
Walk with Kate Lumley as she discovers the “geometry of sky” and interprets the “language of leaves” in this innovative volume. Through vibrant imagery and wide-ranging points of view, humanity and nature are explored for their music. Here, wildlife takes on multiple personas. Terrain is mapped with inventiveness and a search for the truth. Do houses die? Kate challenges perspectives with humility—in a collection that richly rewards repeated readings.
—MARGARET OWEN RUCKERT
Is there a digital version available?
No
Yes