Matthew Thompson Interview

But why is this word “Genius” being bandied around so much in poetry here, in Australia in particular – the noun in particular — not so much the adjective which very loosely is a synonym for ‘ingenious’ meaning “well thought out”. Genius, the noun sounds more like it belongs to the era of the Industrial Revolution, in an age that included the steam-whistle and train shovel — when industrialists & merchants took 2 round cast-iron plates and had them riveted together — perhaps they were merely being “engine-ious”. Was Ned Kelly a Genius?’

Given my ambivalent relationship to literary journals, why on earth would I want to start one?

In the latter half of 2016 I set about writing a poem for each Australian prime minister, past and present, for a collection called P(oe)Ms.

Fifty years on, One Hundred Years of Solitude is still providing profound insight about our evolving human tale where horrors co-exist with wonders, where absurdities don’t provoke a blink.’

If you are a writer, or know one, there is no doubt you would have heard the statement ‘My book could have done better but the marketing was crap.’ The romance of publishing a book is alive and well and regularly clouds the reality of having achieved significantly with one’s labour and imagination (and a supportive publisher). Publishing a book rarely changes one’s life – but it can break your heart if you expect it will.