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📚Poetry for Everyone.
🖋️Poems that give us back to our lives, to each other, and to the world.

06/08/2026

Our heartfelt congratulations to Libby Sommer on a big win.. The judges described Libby's winning poem, "Waves" as “A mature and modern poem with a contemporary theme. The poem was wonderful, addressing some very contemporary issues--of relationships being questioned, loneliness, age and surfing! (All great topics in combination).” You can read the poem in full on the Central West Libraries website (link in bio).

Libby's new collection, provisionally titled "The Rib of Urban Life", will be published by 5Islands Press in 2027.

Mark Tredinnick
Libby Sommer
Rochford Street Review

31/07/2026

At Four Winds in Barragga Bay, on 15 September, everybody’s favourite MC, Peter Frankis, will host a very special Arts Salon event to celebrate the launch of Elizabeth Walton’s powerful new poetry collection, “How To Read A City: Your Place of Last Resort.” Elizabeth, fresh from tour of London, Leeds and Dublin as part of a Neilma Sidney Literary Travel fellowship, will read from her book; you will also hear from Nigel Featherstone, Jen Webb and Sandra Renew.
And there’s more: in response to the performance, there will be improvised music from Elizabeth (piano) and Richard Lawson (synth and percussion); improvised dance by Sydney Dance Company artists’ and a live painting by acclaimed landscape artist Justin Pearson.
Following the performance, guests are invited to meet the artists, enjoy light refreshments and champagne, to celebrate the launch. Books and artworks will be available for purchase.
This is a free event, but places are limited and bookings are essential—you can book through the link in the bio, or register from the home page of the 5Islands Press website.

27/07/2026

Hemat Malak's stunning debut collection, "Shelf Life", arrived from the printer last week, looking stunning.

Returning to her first love--poetry--after a long absence, Hemat Malak has rapidly become one of our most talked about and exciting emerging writers, winning the 2026 Bruce Dawe Prize for Poetry and publishing widely, both in Australia and internationally.

Paris Rosemont has written that "Shelf Life is a collection that balances warmth, humour, and emotional acuity with remarkable craft." We agree. But why not judge for yourself? Join us when Ali Whitelock launches this powerful new book at the beautiful Old Government House in Parramatta on 15 August. This is a free event, but registration is essential: you can register using the link below:

https://www.5islandspress.com/event-details/book-launch-shelf-life

If you can't make it to the launch, you can buy the book now from the 5Islands Press online bookstore or ask for it at you local quality bookshop.

12/07/2026

David Adès’s “A Blink of Time’s Eye” is continuing to attract critical attention.

Last week, in a perceptive article in “Mascara Literary Review",
Natalie Damjanovich-Napoleon celebrated one of the most remarkable features of this outstanding collection: “Few male poets write as empathetically and engagingly about parenting as Adès, and this insight provide some of most poignant moments of the collection.” You can read the review on the link below.

https://www.mascarareview.com/natalie-damjanovich-napoleon-reviews-a-blink-of-times-eye-by-david-ades/

In her review, Natalie also draws attention to the resilient optimism—the poet’s determination to “keep their eyes and heart open to life’s mysteries and joys”—that pervades the book. Those who attended the launch of David’s book will recall Michael Campbell making similar comments in his sensitive and eloquent launch speech. Michael’s speech was subsequently published in "Rochford Street Review".

https://rochfordstreetreview.com/2026/05/15/humility-generosity-understanding-michael-campbell-launches-a-blink-of-times-eye-by-david-ades/

Congratulations to both Natalie and Michael.
We found both of these articles rewarding and enlightening. Why not give them a try?

08/07/2026

Our congratulations to Jennifer and the three other shortlisted poets: Lisa Collyer ("Gold Diggers"), Kaya Ortiz ("Past & Parallel Lives") and Shey Marque ("The Hum Hearers").

Jennifer's book is available now from the 5Islands Press online bookshop.

https://www.5islandspress.com/category/all-products

26/06/2026

The American poet Richard Wilbur once wrote “One of the jobs of poetry is to make the unbearable bearable by clear, precise confrontation.”

Dr Melanie Jansen is a paediatric intensive care specialist and medical ethicist. Confronting the unbearable is, for her and her colleagues, a daily experience: the unbearable pain of parents facing the loss of a child; the unbearable emotional and cognitive load borne by those who must make life-or-death decisions on the basis of imperfect information. In two recent podcasts, Melanie explores in detail the question of how the writing and reading of poetry clarifies and transforms these experiences.

https://educationhubttt.podbean.com/e/reflective-practice/

https://www.podbean.com/ew/pb-5iyaf-1af0c1e

The first podcast investigates how poetry can help to improve the quality of care and clarify ethical decisions; the second explores how writing and reading poetry help both providers and receivers of care to come to terms with trauma and grief.

This a rare chance to hear a report from the front lines; don’t miss it.

Melanie’s book, “All That Could Be Lost”, which was recently published by 5Islands Press, is available from good bookstores around the country or direct from the 5Islands Press online bookstore.

https://www.5islandspress.com/category/all-products

18/06/2026

Annie Mairéad Hunter’s debut collection will be launched at the Northern Arts Hotel in Castlemaine on July 4 by poet and psychiatrist, Jennifer Harrison; your emcee for the event will be Brian Walters.

Annie has won or been placed in the ACU Prize (2018 and 2025), the Liquid Amber Poetry Prize (2025), the Robert Gray Prize for Poetry (2025), and the MPU Prize (2023). Her work has been published in the journal “Plumwood Mountain”.

“Brood Chamber” is a profoundly moving and unsettling collection that covers an astonishing range—from musing over the fate of childhood dolls to a surreal mountain ascent with a dead father on her back, from mourning the ravages of climate change to celebrating a chance poolside encounter with an imaginative youngster, from a clear-eyed recognition of the evils of colonial dispossession to a scrupulously fair account of the lives of settler ancestors —with expansive sympathy, broad erudition and an enviable command of language and form. This book is full of poems that freely offer part of themselves but hint at layers of meaning that remain tantalisingly out of reach.

Registration is free (you can register on the link below) and, as well hearing Annie read from and talk about her book, you will be treated to music from composer Tim Dargaville. If you can make it to this event, you owe it yourself to do so.

https://events.humanitix.com/brood-chamber

“Brood Chamber” is available now from the 5Islands Press online bookshop,
https://www.5islandspress.com/product-page/brood-chamber,
or buy your copy from Stonemans Bookroom in Castlemaine; the book will also be available for sale at the launch.

14/06/2026

If you have not heard Linda read her witty, wise and whimsical work before, I can assure you that you are in for a treat. If you have, you know this already.

Linda is one of Australia’s finest practitioners of the short form. In “Tannic Skin & Sweet Flesh” she explores how "modern poetry is all about the small incidents from a day", relocating the small and quotidian from the margins to the centre. "Linda Godfrey offers a cornucopia of lush, tactile and sensual tastes and images", says Dael Allison, "from landscapes 'all pale stones and poetry' to the intimacy of the bedroom where 'Eros has loosened my limbs, a breeze ruffles linen sheets and curtains', and the kitchen, where the act of preparing and cooking food is as erotic as s*x ... The experience offered in this richly rewarding volume is earthy and lived."

Linda will be launching “Tannic Skin and Sweet Flesh” in Thirroul on 4 July. You can register on the link in the bio. But if you can’t get there, or can’t wait until 4 July to hear what Linda has to say, you can buy the book now from the 5Islands Press online book store https://www.5islandspress.com/category/all-products.

12/06/2026

We were thrilled to see Alison Gorman's “A Woman Talks To Her Tongue” listed in the results of the Anne Elder Award for 2025.

In commending Alison's book, the judges described it as “a collection in which craft is refined with a light touch and the weight of wisdom is borne with tenderness”, and elaborated:
“‘A Woman Talks To Her Tongue’ shifts between the domains of folklore and of personal memory, negotiating the shadows cast over the present by both. Alison Gorman imagines ancient spaces and vignettes of family life with equal vividness and metaphoric richness, her disciplined forms consistently serving her gifts for visual evocation and for symbolic possibilities. A warm, thoughtful and thought-provoking debut collection.”

We are proud to have published this deeply moving book, and thank Alison for entrusting it to us.

Our congratulations also to the winner of the award, Ender Başkan (“Two Hundred Million Musketeers”, Giramondo); and to Kristyn J Sounders (“Slipstream”, Walleah), Connor Weightman (“Fivehundred Swimming Pools”, Rabbit Poetry), Ben Walter (“Lithosphere”, Puncher & Wattman) and Kaya Ortiz (“Past & Parallel Lives”, UWA).

“A Woman Talks to Her Tongue” is available from the 5Islands Press online bookshop https://www.5islandspress.com/product-page/a-woman-talks-to-her-tongue-by-alison-gorman and from leading bookshops.

02/06/2026

The third of our Shorts series for 2026 has arrived, and this is one that you will really want to sink your teeth into.

LINDA GODFREY is a poet, editor and writer who lives on Wadi Wadi land in Wollongong, NSW. She is one of Australia’s finest practitioners of the short form. In “Tannic Skin & Sweet Flesh”, Linda explores how “modern poetry is all about the small incidents from a day”, relocating the small and quotidian from the margins to the centre.

Whether you take a night flight to Vienna with her or board a train to Homebake, you will travel as you never have before. Or stay home and bake a “torta di cioccolato”—whatever you choose to do with Linda (and the options in this short book range from taking a pap smear test to swimming in Le**os), you will be embarking on a verbal adventure that leaves you seeing the world differently.

“Tannic Skin & Sweet Flesh” is now available from the 5 Islands Press online bookshop:

https://www.5islandspress.com/category/all-products

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