Author Description

This volume collects Fay Zwicky's body of poetic work from her seven books alongside poetry uncollected and unpublished. It demonstrates an erudite and passionate crafter of language, and places Fay Zwicky at the summit of Australian poetry. "Zwicky is one of the world's finest poets; her sophistications of form and theme remind one of Akhmatova, Szymborska, Adrienne Rich and William Blake. With poise and control, she tracks the personal encounter with the weight of history and the obligation to declare a position." --John Kinsella *** "In her poetry, Zwicky, the ex-concert pianist, technically adroit, dramatic and profoundly serious, is there alongside the joker, the edgy ironist making wry asides against the world, patriarchy and herself. Her formal poems sit easily beside her mostly short-lined, tightly wrought free verse. Her cadences are a delight." --Katherine Gallagher *** "Zwicky's poems deal with such over-whelming intimations of mortality-and much more than intimations-while striving for and attaining a breathtaking authority and stubborn subjectivity of voice." --Lyn McCredden [Subject: Poetry]