Author(s): Joel Deane

Poetry

Year Of the Wasp finds its origins in shattering personal experience and then rises from this personal focus to confront the realities of politics, culture, and language in contemporary Australia. This is a deeply engaged collection, much of the time it reads like the poet is writing for his life in a voice that is burnished, sharp, capable of lyricism, fraying just a little but always energetic. From Melbourne to the awful stillness of the Riverina, the public and the private intersect relentlessly to produce a work of unrivalled power, emotional intensity, and insight.