HEAT 8

HEAT 8 presents essays by the distinguished art critic and novelist John Berger, and the poet Gustaf Sobin, both of whom focus on megaliths, the one from a political, the other from a lyrical perspective.

There’s an essay too by Durs Grünbein, on Dresden under East German rule. Grünbein was born in Dresden in 1962, but now lives in Berlin. In 1995 he won the Georg Büchner prize, Germany’s most prestigious literary award.

Other international writers include the American poet John Ashbery, the Danish novelist Solvej Balle, the Chilean short-story writer Jaime Collyer, and from China the prominent poets Zhang Zao and Xi Chuan.

These contributions are set alongside the best in contemporary Australian writingin this issue, a chilling monologue by dramatist Stephen Sewell, a new sequence of poems by Dorothy Porter, a meditation on the fate of writers in the Soviet Union by Subhash Jaireth, the seventh chapter of Anna Couani’s serial novel, and Ivor Indyk’s assessment of the poetry of John Forbes, who died in January. Artist Imants Tillers offers five portraits of novelist Murray Bail, there is art work by Jacqueline Rose and new poetry by Emma Lew, Adam Aitken, Peter Rose, Gig Ryan, John Tranter, Paola Bilbrough, Adrian Wiggins, Dipti Sara, Joanne Burns and Jeltje, as well as reviews of Artaud and Nerval, “Il Neoitaliano” and new Australian poetry and fiction.

Contents

Megalithic Perspectives

John Berger – How to Live with Stones
Gustaf Sobin – West-Southwest
Solvej Balle – &

Looking East

Subhash Jaireth – Moskva Maya Moskva
Zhang Zao – Dialogue with Tsvetayeva (translated from Chinese by Simon Patton)
Durs Grünbein – The Chimera of Dresden, Trigeminal Nerve (translated from German by Beate Josephi)

Monsters

Xi Chuan – The Monster
Jaime Collyer – The Beast at Home (translated from Spanish by Chris Andrews)
Stephen Sewell – Cat (A Dramatic Monologue)
Ivor Indyk – The Awkward Grace of John Forbes

Art

Jacqueline Rose – “Being Has Teeth”
Imants Tillers – Five Portraits of Murray Bail

Serial

Anna Couani – The Western Horizon (chapter 7)

Views & Reviews

Bartoloni on Il Neoitaliano, Wallace-Crabbe on McMaster & Zwicky, Huppatz on Artaud and Nerval, Van Toorn on Mudrooroo, Geczy on Jones, McCredden on Bolton, Schultz on Brown, Uhlmann on Macris

Poetry

Emma Lew, Dorothy Porter, Janet Charman, Zan Ross, Jeltje, Gig Ryan, Paola Bilbrough, Dipti Saravanamuttu, Peter Rose, John Ashbery, John Tranter, Adrian Wiggins, Brian Henry, Joanne Burns, Adam Aitken.