Celebrating ‘Poetry of Change’

Rose Lucas hosted a full zoom room at the launch of Poetry of Change

Anne M. Carson launches the anthology

Softcover (if you like to smell the pages) or pdf (if your bookshelves are groaning).

It takes a village. Thanks to all the poets who entered the prize; to all those on the Longlist and in the anthology, and those who read on the evening; to the judges/editors Rose Lucas, Ali Whitelock and Reneé Pettitt-Schipp; to Sharon Monagle for her image which was part of the Prize prompts and now on the cover of the book; to Dave Hughes for his design work; to Pauline for admin and publication grunt work; and to Anne M. Carson for her endorsement, and the launch itself.

Buy the book - softcover or digital

Read Anne M. Carson's launch speech

Currents of shift – poems on the nature of change

“What a great night it was! So many talented poets all in one place (if Zoom is a place.) So many powerful poems” – this comment pretty much summed up the chat in the Zoom room we shared to hear Anne M. Carson launch Poetry of Change and listen to the poets reading.

Stunning line up of poetic talent, and fabulous to hear an hour of new top-shelf poetry.

The 48 poems in Poetry of Change are the longlist for the 2024 Liquid Amber Poetry Prize and were chosen from a truly impressive body of submissions. In their different ways, they offer us insights into profound changes – such as the ageing body, shifts in relationship, various forms of grief, the cataclysmic roll of climate change, the impacts of colonization, the leftfield hit of the pandemic… as well as incidental changes of season, perception, fashion, the daily round.

The astounding stylistic and thematic range of poems in this anthology provide different observations of currents of shift – in ourselves and in the world around us – and in so doing, they enact the potential of powerful art by offering us, as readers, the insights and connections which enable us to live our lives for the better.