A Hint of Rosemary

Hazel Hall is not afraid to push boundaries as she explores the traditional sonnet, its connections with classical Japanese forms, and their shared musicality. She points out similarities between these forms, but also celebrates their differences. This collection includes sonnets with haiku or tanka attached, a sonnet using the same rhyme throughout, a sonnet created with fourteen lines of single-line haiku and a fourteen line ghazal in iambic pentameter. Hazel also experiments with rhyming styles, returning to basic concepts of melody and rhyme in her quest to discover 'At what point is a sonnet not a sonnet?' She observes that the sonnet form is barely recognisable in some of her hybrids. Do you agree? Readers are invited to draw their own conclusions. They are also invited to experiment for themselves.

Hazel Hall is an Australian poet and musicologist who works across a wide range of poetic forms. She holds a PhD in Education from Monash University. From 2012 to 2018, Hazel was founder and convenor of the School of Music Poets, ACT: an ekphrastic group that collaborated with musicians, song writers, and artists to produce a series of poetry chapbooks. She directed the monthly event Poetry at Manning Clark House in Canberrra from 2018 to 2022. Hazel's work can be found in a wide range of local and overseas anthologies and journals and has been a featured poet in printed journals, on websites and blogs. She has won a number of prizes and editors' awards, and her work has been peer selected three times for the Red Moon Anthology. Hazel co-edited Flood Fire and Drought; One Last Border; Silver Fugue, collected works of the School of Music Poets; and The Ink Sinks Deeper. Her own collections include eggshell sky with calligraphers Angela Hillier, Narelle Jones and Parkinsons artists; Step by Step with tai chi practitioner Angelina Egan and Moonlight over the Siding, featuring artwork by the late Robert Tingey. Her chapbook Severed Web, with artist Deborah Faeyrglenn, highlights environment and climate change. Hazel's crown of sonnets Please Add Your Signature and Date it Here is a radio play exploring problems in aged care. Breathe In, Breathe Out is a chapbook of haiku linked with answering tanka and cherita. Also due in 2024, with poet Moya Pacey and artist Leena Clark is Featherfall, a collection of poems exploring human relationships with birds. In 2024, Hazel will judge her fourth international contest, which to date have included the Tanka Society of America's Sanford Goldstein Contest (2019), the Haiku Poets of North America's Tanka Contest (2021) and the British Haiku Society's Tanka Contest (2023).