FireFront Format: TradePaperback

This important anthology, curated by Gomeroi poet and academic Alison Whittaker, showcases many respected First Nations poets from this continent alongside some of its rising stars. Featured poets include Oodgeroo Noonuccal, Jack Davis, Ruby Langford Ginibi, Kevin Gilbert, Lisa Bellear, Lionel Fogarty, Kerry Reed-Gilbert, Archie Roach, Alexis Wright, Sam Wagan Watson, Ellen van Neerven, Briggs, Claire G. Coleman, and Tony Birch. Divided into five thematic sections, each is introduced by an essay from a leading Aboriginal writer and thinker – Bruce Pascoe, Ali Cobby Eckermann, Steven Oliver, Chelsea Bond, and Evelyn Araluen Corr – who reflects on the power of First Nations poetry in their own inimitable way. This incredible book is a testament to the renaissance of First Nations poetry happening in Australia right now.

Alison Whittaker is a Gomeroi multitasker. She has been a Fulbright scholar at Harvard Law School, where she was named the Dean’s Scholar in Race, Gender and Criminal Law, and is currently a Senior Researcher at the Jumbunna Institute. Her debut poetry collection, Lemons in the Chicken Wire, was awarded the State Library of Queensland’s black&write! Indigenous Writing Fellowship. Her latest book, BLAKWORK, was shortlisted in the Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards and won the Queensland Literary Awards Judith Wright Calanthe Award for a Poetry Collection.