Justin Lowe



This is Not a Poetry Review: Self-publishing 101

Self-publishing has never been easier to do than now, yet it’s often spoken about in terms of ‘last resorts’ or ‘building up’ to something. Some people do it shamelessly, others create publishing houses to mitigate the ‘stigma’. I’ve been sent four books to examine as case-studies, each of which use completely different styles of self-publishing.

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After a Quote by Reznikoff

when I read a poem like this I often turn the page. there appears to be no texture, no colour only the music of someone biting an apple. when I read a poem like this, it occurs to me that …

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Mick

I imagine there is a door facing you, half open, half closed, maybe some stranger’s fingerprints around the handle, those dead leaves heaped by time. you may have coughed once or twice; I remember some vague pledge to quit the …

Posted in 66: OBSOLETE | Tagged

The Trademan’s Promise

for Jez, Huw, “Disco” Dan, Anthony, Rufus and Paula better to carve names in a tree in some lost valley known only to tribes long since vanished like wisps of smoke better to ask the wind the heedless bitter fickle …

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Annales

your email was well-timed and equally well-received Germanicus I see you have removed your father’s bust from your masthead his victories over the Suevi is this to assuage his critics who always seem so close a mere fingertip away or …

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Brentley Frazer Reviews Justin Lowe

'When reading Justin Lowe, I keep looking over my shoulder, even on the bus, not as though I am being watched, more as if I expect to see someone who looks like a master philosopher from the middle ages who has traveled through time to observe us, here and now, taking down notes.'

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Justin Lowe Reviews Chris Mansell

Chris Mansell is a serious poet. She has an agent and a Statement of Intent, and apart from my faithful drinking partner, Tug Dumbly (who just so happens to hail from Ms Mansell's neck of the woods), I don't know any poet with an agent, and certainly none with an S.o.I.

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Justin Lowe Reviews Michael Farrell

I've never been prone to brand loyalty (no sniggers from the comfy chairs, please), but recently, the merest glimpse of the Salt Publishing logo has me reaching for my wallet. I love a challenge, and Michael Farrell's second verse collection ode ode continues that publishing house's burgeoning tradition of pulling the rug from under my snug size 12s.

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Eurydice

Justin Lowe has published three collections of poetry, one novel, and had songs recorded by artists as diverse as The Whitlams, The Impossibles and Sydney jazz diva Lily Dior. He writes reviews for the award-winning Red Room Radio Project.

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Justin Lowe Reviews Emma Lew and Ashlley Morgan-Shae

Emma Lew's second verse collection, Anything the Landlord Touches, begins with one of those stanzas that could almost serve as a credo for an entire generation of atomized humanity: They speak of stridency and nothingness
and wrap up their shoulders in grey light.
I want to walk again in this miry place.
I want the fever and fret beneath, though
it's something I forget, like pain.

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Scheherazade

Justin Lowe has published three collections of poetry, one novel, and had songs recorded by artists as diverse as The Whitlams, The Impossibles and Sydney jazz diva Lily Dior. He writes reviews for the award-winning Red Room Radio Project.

Posted in 13: INTERNATIONAL | Tagged

Justin Lowe Reviews Alison Croggon

Early last year, John Kinsella, man of letters and chief editor of Salt Publication, published his selection of Michael Dransfield's poetry through UQP, simply titled Retrospective. This old Dransfield acolyte couldn't fault it, and I have been waiting for an opportunity to proclaim that for six long months. So what's the occasion, Justin? I think I have just stumbled across Dransfield's successor:

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