fourW is one of Australia’s longest running annual anthologies of new poetry and prose from Australian and international writers.
Bathurst poet and award-winning writer, Joan Phillip, launched the 29th issue of fourW New Writing with aplomb, upstairs at Gleebooks in Sydney at 3.30pm on Saturday 24 November. Touching on highlights from fourW over the years in her opening she mused on
the layers of nacre that accrue to produce a pearl
and how a pearl could symbolise a thirtieth anniversary. And this almost thirtieth issue of fourW twenty-nine has a pearlescent cover designed by talented third year photography student at CSU, Hayley Kotzur.
2018 has indeed been a challenging year for everyone in the Faculty of Arts at Charles Sturt University (as it has for the Humanities at universities elsewhere in the world) what with the erosion of Humanities staff and Humanities courses and the withdrawal of university funding for this anthology. However, the irrepressible David Gilbey and the committed team at Booranga Writers’ Centre press on. They have selected a most interesting survey of new writing that I‘m proud to celebrate and be a part of.
As a fan of Dorothy Simmon’s micro-fiction I am pleased to hear Dotti has won the Booranga Short Story Prize 2018 with ‘Opposable Thumbs’ in which a digital native comes of age thanks to several family crises. And the Booranga Poetry Prize was awarded to Andy Kissane for his dramatic monologue, ‘Sacrifice’.
Several writers read from their work at the Sydney launch. I particularly enjoyed Joanna Wilson-Ridley’s poem, ‘Rodong Hall’s Green Army’, in which a daughter from regional NSW is visiting her metropolitan mother in Kirribilli. A short story about the destructive nature of Islamophobia, ‘The Loudest Hug’, by Erwin Cabucos, also resonated with me. And I found Sally Chik’s poem about family violence, titled ‘Protection’, poignant and unsettling. My poem in a previous post is ‘Reading The Moths’.
Thank you so much David Gilbey and the fourWpress for publishing this 29th issue of fourW New Writing!
To purchase a copy of fourW twenty-nine, click here.
Riparian 