Ruby Street

I am pleased and gratified that my most recent book, Viva the Real (UQP), has been shortlisted in the Prime Minister’s Literary Awards for 2019 . Awards and prizes aren’t obviously the be-all and end-all but they do repay some of the faith the writer (in this case, me) and publisher had in the book. It's a welcome thing, especially as a genre like poetry pretty much gets ignored by book reviewing culture, literary festivals, and the like. The judges say of the book : Viva the Real by Jill Jones is an heroic celebration of the everyday: … For Jones the poem is an artefact freeze-framing thought: she is interested in the connections between the quotidian, attentiveness, and the resourcefulness of the poem to make legible our familiar. … An antidote to distraction, Viva the Real is a marvellous contribution to the poetics of everyday life: it magnifies the moment and resonates long after reading. A couple of years ago on this blog, I posted some thoughts I had about what my...

OK, I can now update details of my next book launch: Breaking The Days will be launched in Melbourne by Alison Croggon at The Alderman, 134 Lygon St, Brunswick East, on Saturday 21st November, 2.30-4.30pm. Welcome, one and all! You might be interested to read some of my thoughts on putting the book together a few posts back on the blog. I hope to have a cover pic available soon.  

It's a busy November for me, as it turns out. As well as marking and administrivia stress outs, I'm dancing poetry around Australia, even in the current home town. First up, because it's confirmed, and it's, urrm, first up, I'll be reading in Adelaide at the first Lee Marvin reading for November alongside David Mortimer, Heather Taylor Johnson and the maestro, Ken Bolton himself. So, that's Tuesday 3rd, November at Dark Horsey, the usual 7.30pm for 8pm. The full Lee Marvin November program , a pretty tasty one for the beginning of the summer season, is as follows: November 3rd  Jill Jones  •  Heather Taylor Johnson  •  Ken Bolton  •  David Mortimer November 10th   Cath Kenneally  •  Naomi Horridge   •  Gretta Mitchell  •  Shannon Burns November 17th   Jelena Dinic   •  Mike Ladd  •  Alison Flett  •  Peter Goldsworthy November 24th   Francesca da Rimini...

I am currently involved in the various tasks in getting a book ready for print and release . The book, at this moment, is called Breaking the Days , and was a joint winner of the Whitmore Press Manuscript Prize last year . The other winner, Tracy Ryan, has already published her volume in late July. But back to this process. Because they are tasks, things that you do to make something. My initial task was to complete the manuscript after having the initial 150 lines (or so) being chosen last year. And thanks to Whitmore Press folks for offering this ongoing opportunity to poets, and, of course, for picking my manuscript last year. I did, in fact, have a longer manuscript idea I was working from, so I knew the field of poems I would be playing with. Mostly, though not entirely, they were a series of writings I had done during 2014, and to narrow it down, mostly during the first seven or eight months of that year. I have since included a few newer 2015 poems and reworked one or two ...