It’s the sixth year of UQP’s ‘Best Australian Poetry’ series, and guest editor David Brooks, whose recent novel was shortlisted for the 2008 Miles Franklin award, invites us to once again sample the cream of contemporary Australian poetry. For the first time, poems from online literary journals have been included in the mix, and though a little shell-shocked from having so many to choose from, Brooks has settled on 40 poems by a range of young, new and established Australian poets, including Jaya Savige, Jennifer Maiden and Robert Adamson. Its key point of difference with the competing Black Inc. poetry series is the inclusion of contributor notes at the back, in which each poet reveals sometimes surprising details about the writing process and subject of their selected poem. Packaged for the Christmas market, for both the serious poetry devotee and casual reader to dip into, it features many treats, with several poems offering distinctly Australian impressions of everyday experiences, in both country and urban settings. Unfortunately, to my mind, it includes a few too many poems that are either self-referential or dotted with obscure references, which may affect the overall appeal of the volume for the casual reader.

Sally Denmead is a freelance reviewer who has worked in publishing and as a bookseller

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