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5 Islands Press đź“šPoetry for Everyone.
🖋️Poems that give us back to our lives, to each other, and to the world.

We are delighted that Magdalena Ball has chosen to review of David Adès’s A Blink of Time’s Eye.Magdalena's perceptive r...
05/01/2026

We are delighted that Magdalena Ball has chosen to review of David Adès’s A Blink of Time’s Eye.

Magdalena's perceptive review that demonstrates a deep appreciation of Adès’s work. In seeking to understand the craftmanship that is so evident in David’s book, Magdalena points to his work on the Poet’s Corner podcast https://www.westwords.com.au/poets-corner

“… these interviews … really get into the nitty gritty of a poet’s full body of work, process, techniques and themes. I suspect that is part of why Adés own work is so rich is how deeply he understands the making of a good poem.”

You can read the full review on the Compulsive Reader website at
https://compulsivereader.com/2025/12/29/a-review-of-a-blink-of-times-eye-by-david-ades/

Thank you, Magdalena, for all the work you do for poetry.

A Blink of Time’s eye is available from the 5 Islands Press online bookstore, or from leading bookshops, including Readings, Gleebooks, Collins Booksellers Thirroul and Hobart Bookshop.

“Not, I'll not, carrion comfort, Despair, not feast on thee,” wrote Gerard Manley Hopkins. Writing our two poems for Ch...
23/12/2025

“Not, I'll not, carrion comfort, Despair, not feast on thee,” wrote Gerard Manley Hopkins. Writing our two poems for Christmas has helped us to make the same commitment. We offer them as small gifts in these hard days. You can read them at:
https://www.5islandspress.com/two-laments
and
https://www.5islandspress.com/making-sense

Thank you to all who have supported 5 Islands Press during 2025: to the poets who entrusted their work to us; to those who have bought our books, and the bookshops that have stocked them; to those who turned up at our launches and other events; to reviewers, editors of journals, and others who have helped to promote our publications; to those who have shared our posts on social media; to the many who have provided practical help, and the many more who have encouraged us with their kind words. We will strive to repay your faith in us.

May your Christmas be filled with love, gratitude and joy.

It’s hard to travel to Japan and not return with something refined and beautiful. But most of us settle for a set of fin...
11/12/2025

It’s hard to travel to Japan and not return with something refined and beautiful. But most of us settle for a set of fine knives or an elegant woodblock print. Not Helga Jermy. Helga has brought the whole country back—and, in the best tradition of Japanese gift-giving, the way it is wrapped is as impressive as the contents.

Anne Kellas writes:

“… Helga Jermy transposes the English language into something new. In 'Following the Ink', layered text becomes a live and mobile lens through which we see (and join) Helga and her daughter on travels through contemporary Japan, glimpsing its underlay of tradition, harmony and postmodern tensions. With feathery brushstrokes, Helga makes a new kind of ekphrasis based on sound and movement, and the result is pleasing and beautiful: a travelling, vibrating geography, fresh and sometimes startling, always mesmerising. Reading Helga's poetry is a joy.”

"Following the Ink" is a zuihitsu: a Japanese literary form that traces its origins back to the 10th century "Pillow Book". The zuihitsu is a kind of lyric essay—fragmentary discontinuous and improvisational, it is artfully imperfect, a response, neither too shapely nor too finished, to the nature of the real, the impermanence, wild order, and incompleteness of the world in human experience.

If you have never read a zuihitsu before, this book is a wonderful way to introduce yourself to the form. If you are steeped in the zuihitsu form, you will enjoy the subtle ways in which Helga Jermy plays with the form. The perfect Christmas present for yourself or someone you love, "Following the Ink" is now available from the 5 Islands Press online bookshop.
https://www.5islandspress.com/product-page/following-the-ink

Red Room Poetry’s Writing Competition, one of the highlights of Poetry Month, culminates in Red Room offering paid com...
07/12/2025

Red Room Poetry’s Writing Competition, one of the highlights of Poetry Month, culminates in Red Room offering paid commissions to three poets to develop their initial 3-line poems or excepts into full-length poems. In September, we were delighted to learn that 5 Islands Poet Noelia Ramón was one of the three poets.

The full text of Noelia’s fine poem, “A Manifesto (Written) in Salt”, has now been published on the Red Room website at

https://redroompoetry.org/poets/noelia-ramon/a-manifesto-written-in-salt/

You will also find there Noelia’s delightful reading of the poem.

Our congratulations also to the other commissioned poets, Mahalia Charlotte and Nathan Mudyi Sentance, whose moving poems and readings are also now available on the Red Room website. And our thanks to Red Room Poetry: for this initiative, and for the many other ways in which it supports poetry and poets.

Noelia’s debut collection, "The Man in the Photograph", is available here: https://www.5islandspress.com/product-page/the-man-in-the-photograph

"A Blink of Time’s Eye”, David Adès’s latest book, will be launched at Benledi House, Glebe, on 14 December, by Michael ...
24/11/2025

"A Blink of Time’s Eye”, David Adès’s latest book, will be launched at Benledi House, Glebe, on 14 December, by Michael Campbell, Executive Director of WestWords. We would love you to join us for drinks and nibbles, and to hear David read a selection of poems from this splendid new collection.

David Adès will be known to many, especially those living in Sydney, as the producer and host of the podcast Poets’ Corner.  David’s poems and short stories have been published all over the world.

“A Blink of Time’s Eye” is a document of profound and sustained inquiry. “I have appointed myself detective to my own life," David Adès writes in "Today's Weather.” Nothing escapes the gaze of this persistent and perceptive investigator. His strange and unusual sort of detective work is undertaken not with any expectation of finding clear answers, but with finding a way to live with the realisation that they will never be found.  The result is a book of bifurcations and multiplications; of roads taken and not taken; of living between the "here" and the "there"; of presences that look like absences, and absences that are oppressively present; and "of every prior certainty/burnt beyond recognition."

The unexamined life, we were told many years ago, is not worth living. David Adès has taken this advice to heart; and through his rigorous scrutiny of a rich interior life, he has produced a volume of poems worth living for.

But don’t take our word for it—come along and judge for yourself. This is a free event, but please register on the 5 Islands Press website (link in bio) to help us assess catering requirements.







We were delighted to see Steve Meyrick’s "Nowhere Near Damascus" receive a notice in this month’s edition of the Qantas ...
22/11/2025

We were delighted to see Steve Meyrick’s "Nowhere Near Damascus" receive a notice in this month’s edition of the Qantas in-flight magazine—seated between Margaret Atwood’s autobiography and Claire Keegan’s celebrated "Small Things Like These."

The notice was in Michael Williams’ regular “Reading List” column. Michael—who, among other things, is editor of "The Monthly" and was host of the Read This podcast— writes “It’s such a treat to immerse yourself in a new collection of poetry, and Steve Meyrick’s gentle, wise voice makes excellent company.”

Thank you, Michael, for paying attention to work from small, independent publishers as well as international best-sellers. It makes a difference.

"Nowhere Near Damascus" is available from the 5 Islands Press online store https://www.5islandspress.com/category/all-products and leading bookshops, including Readings, Gleebooks and Collins Booksellers.

It was with great sadness that we learned yesterday that, after a long and debilitating illness, Robert Gray had died. ...
19/11/2025

It was with great sadness that we learned yesterday that, after a long and debilitating illness, Robert Gray had died. His passing will be mourned not just by his many friends but also by the thousands who, though they never met him, know and admire his work.

The best evidence of the esteem in which Robert was--and is--held comes from the words of gratitude and appreciation from fellow poets that have already begun to flow. There are few better ways to appreciate the contribution of Robert Gray to Australian cultural life than to read the obituary by Geoff Lehmann's published today in SMH and The Age, or listen to the beautiful new poem written by Mark Tredinnick to honour Robert's legacy, a reading of which was posted by Mark () earlier this morning.



It was wonderful to see another review of a book from 5 Islands Press published—this time, and review of David Adès’s im...
11/11/2025

It was wonderful to see another review of a book from 5 Islands Press published—this time, and review of David Adès’s impressive new book, "A Blink of Time’s Eye." Our thanks to the reviewer, Terry McDonagh, and to Mark Ulyseas, the publisher and editor of Live Encounters, who does so much to promote and support new poetry.

Copies of David’s book are now available direct from our online bookshop https://www.5islandspress.com/category/all-products, or from good bookshops. "A Blink of Time’s Eye" will be formally launched at Benledi House in Glebe on 14 December 2025. Registration will open soon: keep an eye on our website.

We were delighted to read poet and critic David McCooey's perceptive and thoughtful review of "The Making of a Poem" in ...
07/11/2025

We were delighted to read poet and critic David McCooey's perceptive and thoughtful review of "The Making of a Poem" in the "Australian Book Review". McCooey goes straight to the heart of the three things that make Rosanna McGlone's book a “work … of interest to all readers of poetry”: the quality of the poems that are included in it; the thoughtful, open reflections of the contributing poets; and the sensitive and skilful approach taken by Rosanna, who “is an unintrusive interviewer, asking short, sensible questions, and avoiding extensive editorialising.”

Thank you, David, for taking the time to review this important book; and thank you, Australian Book Review , for publishing it. If you are a subscriber to ABR, you can read the full review at the address below.

https://www.australianbookreview.com.au/abr-online/current-issue/1025-november-2025-no-481/14660-david-mccooey-reviews-the-making-of-a-poem-eleven-australian-poets-talk-about-their-craft-by-rosanna-mcglone

If you are not, maybe now is a good time to consider subscribing.

"The Making of a Poem" is available from leading bookshops, or direct from 5 Islands Press through our online store

https://www.5islandspress.com/product-page/the-making-of-a-poem







There is much, much more to our latest release—A Blink of Time’s Eye, from David Adès—than its gorgeous cover. David Ad...
05/11/2025

There is much, much more to our latest release—A Blink of Time’s Eye, from David Adès—than its gorgeous cover.

David Adès will be known to many, especially those living in Sydney, as the producer and host of the podcast Poets’ Corner. David’s poems and short stories have been published all over the world.

Of this collection, selected from work that David’s fastidious craftsmanship has produced over many years, Damen O’Brien has written that “these are poems that should be read in moments of uncertainty and doubt because the poet has found his way out of those dark places with the torchlight of his poetry, and the reader will too.”

We believe Damen nailed it. Nothing escapes the gaze of this persistent and perceptive investigator. "I have appointed myself detective to my own life," David Adès writes in "Today's Weather." This strange and unusual sort of detective work is undertaken not with any expectation of finding clear answers, but with finding a way to live with the realisation that they will never be found. The result is a book of bifurcations and multiplications; of roads taken and not taken; of living between the "here" and the "there"; of presences that look like absences, and absences that are oppressively present; and "of every prior certainty/burnt beyond recognition."

A Blink of Time’s Eye will be formally launched at Benledi House in Glebe on the afternoon of December 14. Keep an eye on our website for news about this event. But you don’t have to wait until then to read this impressive book. You can get it now from our online bookshop (www.5islandspress.com/product-page/a-blink-of-times-eye)—or ask for it at your local bookstore.


rowland




14/10/2025

After so much pain and suffering, we see at last a glimmer of hope—a plan for peace. Its genesis is marred and murky. It is incomplete. It is shaky. It will not satisfy everyone. It may not last. But it is what we have, and we—all of us—have to make it work. And it will only work if our eyes are opened to the depth and breadth of the suffering of the people of Gaza, and our hearts are opened to our shared humanity.

This is the work that this book does. These poems document the nightmare—they show us, as only poetry can, what it is like to live inside it. They are, as Mark Tredinnick has written, “partisan for peace and for life and for mothers and fathers and children. For hope and home. Even if you forget the circumstances under which they are written, they are remarkable instances of poetry’s peace-making work, its soul-making, heart-breaking, mind-altering work.”

This is why you should read this book. But buying it will also help relieve the profound humanitarian crisis in Gaza The organisations that stood ready to provide desperately needed aid have been unable to do so effectively, but the barriers that prevented them from doing so are being removed. We need to make sure that they have the resources to deliver the many things that the people of Gaza need quickly and effectively, and to keep doing so for many months to come. Many people are helping to raise the necessary funds in many different ways. Our way is to publish this book, and donate the revenue from sales of this book to Medicins sans Fontieres.

You can order "Eah Night I Count My Children" now from the 5 Islands Press online bookshop using the link below
www.5islandspress.com/product-page/each-night-i-count-my-children

The book would not have been possible without the generosity of the poets who contributed their work for free. Their names are on the reel, and you will find more of their work on Instagram. Our thanks to Denise Howell, whose idea this was, and who compiled the collection and brought it to 5 Islands Press; and to Peter Frankis, whose many skills and many hours of voluntary labour have made it possible to publish this moving and important book.





After a long and arduous, but also very rewarding, selection process, we are announcing the names of the accomplished po...
11/10/2025

After a long and arduous, but also very rewarding, selection process, we are announcing the names of the accomplished poets whose collections will be included in our 2026–27 publication program.

We will provide more details about each of them and their impressive manuscripts over the coming months. For now, we simply want to thank them publicly for entrusting their work to us.

We would also like to thank all the other poets who responded to our call for submissions. We were overwhelmed by the quality of the poems that we received.  It is heartening to know that so many talented people are dedicated to the art—and craft—of making good poetry.  It is heartbreaking that we do not have the resources to publish more of it. There is so much more of this excellent work that we would have loved to help into the world if we had the capacity to do so, and we wish these poets every success in finding another publisher for their work.  We will, at least, have the consolation of providing a small sample of it in our forthcoming anthology, "Oystercatcher Two.".





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