“Jann was extremely precise in her work and these apparent incidentals mattered. I think that a fundamental dichotomy in her approach caused her some existential angst: how could she make the poem as exact as possible and yet still leave ‘room in each poem for the imagination of the reader to move around in’.”

“Nearly six years ago, when I had written the last of my poems for the collection Green Shadows and Other Poems, I felt sure that I could write nothing more for publication. I went on writing, of course, but only for my archives.”

HEAT, Giramondo’s literary journal, will be published in a third series from early 2022, and welcomes poetry, fiction, essays and hybrid forms. Our intention is to publish the best work being written in Australia and internationally, with a view to cultivating an openness to possibilities. Submissions will be open for the months of October and November.

There are two ways of saying ‘human looking’; one with a hyphen, the other with a comma. In other words, these poems are about how we judge others to be human yet not-quite-human. They’re also about the humanness of the gaze, the vulnerability of the person doing the looking.

For several years I was working on a book about Europeans who explored Australia. At the same time I was tending a small archive about my friend, the dancer and choreographer Philippa Cullen, who once said that if she died young, I should write about her. She was twenty-five when she died, in 1975

Congratulations to Pi O who is shortlisted for the Melbourne Prize for Literature and Kristen Lang, longlisted for The Laurel Prize for Earth Dwellers.

We invite you to join us online for the launch of Toby Fitch’s new collection Sydney Spleen and for a conversation between Anwen Crawford and Declan Fry.

“It is difficult to live in the ‘after’ of sexual assault when empire reminds you time and time again – through the broken justice system, the news, and the stories of people you care about – that what was done to you doesn’t matter. Through the writing of these poems, I’ve tried to map out what it means to live in the ‘after’ while holding the weapons of rage, hope and desire.”

“I did intend for the heroes of this book to be equally as influenced by Tommy Raudonikis and the Western Suburbs Magpies as they were by Kathy Acker, The Dicks and Noam Choamsky: to have equal appreciation of the great sport of rugby league as they do the (ir-)relevant cultural artifacts of twenty-first century Sydney punk music, all while dreaming of related anti-capitalist pursuits.”

‘Whilst designing, I seek to decipher meanings in abstract visual configurations in response to the literary work, as well as to determine how abstract an image can be and retain meaning for others.’ Jenny Grigg describes the process for designing Giramondo’s new-look poetry series.

Join us online and in person to celebrate the publication of Gentle and Fierce by Vanessa Berry and Nostalgia Has Ruined My Life by Zarah Butcher-McGunnigle.

The Speculate Prize is a new national award for an unpublished speculative fiction manuscript.

One winner will receive $5000 prize money, mentorship from Giramondo Publishing and a week-long residency at RMIT Culture’s McCraith House.

This biennial prize is aimed at writers who explore the expansive possibilities of literature. We wish to uncover and support writers who embrace new literary modes and extend the possibilities of the novel and short story form.

Giramondo Publishing is pleased to announce the appointment of Alexandra Christie as the editor of the third series of HEAT magazine.

From Fiona Kelly McGregor’s essay ‘Looking for Lanny K’ comes ‘a psychedelic mix of Egyptian, Iranian and other West Asian trippy delights from the 1960s and 70s, with contemporary stuff from around the world thrown in’.

‘Across the collection lies a gossamer web that stretches between people, places and the natural world, threads that are gathered and sustained over time. Time in its vagaries and elusiveness is another poetic focus. Beneath the Tree Line recognises that humans need a habitable environment just like plants and animals, something we ignore at our peril.’

‘When you don’t really feel like you have a future, or the sort of future that is available to you seems uncaring and undesirable, then you can get stuck in the past and nostalgia.’