Simon West

An uncanny blend of the external and the intimate has been a hallmark of Simon West's poetry for nearly twenty years. In this new collection, the Australian poet and Italianist delights in the transforming and endlessly varied powers of naming and speaking. West's intensely regional focus stands in dialogue with Europe and antiquity. Landscapes reveal the tangle of their historical...

An uncanny blend of the external and the intimate has been a hallmark of Simon West's poetry for nearly twenty years. In this new collection, the Australian poet and Italianist delights in the transforming and endlessly varied powers of naming and speaking. West's intensely regional focus stands in dialogue with Europe and antiquity. Landscapes reveal the tangle of their historical...

In these essays, Simon West examines our metaphors for reaching back after inspiration. Rather than cultural rubble ripe for plunder, he celebrates our waterways in imagining that heritage—rivers that nourish the red gums across floodplains. In doing so, he ranges widely, bridging Classical and European interests with a celebration of Australian poets, while asking, always, where is Parnassus now? Does...