As the national representative body for poetry in Australia, Australian Poetry (AP) wishes to expresses its deep dismay at the decision this week by the University of WA to axe its 84-year-old publishing arm, UWAP, with operations set to cease imminently. Led by UWAP’s brilliant, indefatigable publisher and poetry publisher, Terri-ann White, this decision not only leaves in limbo forthcoming poetry books (15 in total), it significantly impacts negatively the future landscape of Australian poetry overall. As one of the poetry majors in Australia, Terri-ann and UWAP have earned universal respect for their vision and lists – at this point, a 320 back-list includes 60+ individual poetry collections by Australian poets, alongside UWAP’s iconic Collected series, featuring the likes of Francis Webb, Lesbia Harford and Fay Zwicky. And in terms of recent contributions to the flourishing of contemporary Australian poetry, they have published 40 individual collections alone in the new series they began in October 2016. This is an incredible achievement, and if UWAP is able to continue, via this axeing decision being reversed, this series would continue to offer essential pathways for so many emerging and established poets. Without it, our art-form palpably suffers. Poets whose collections have been scheduled for February are David Stavanger, Jill Jones, Thuy On, Nadia Rhook and Graeme Miles.More.... ***** Support UWAP by signing the petition at Change.org Comments are closed.
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