Net Needle - Softcover

Robert Adamson

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1780373015 ISBN 13: 9781780373010

Publisher: Bloodaxe Books Ltd, 2016

Synopsis

Robert Adamson was nourished for much of his life by Australia’s Hawkesbury River. His poetry praises nature – red in tooth and claw – and celebrates existence as a mythological quest. Net Needle was his third book of poetry to be published in Britain, following Reading the River: Selected Poems (2004) and The Kingfisher's Soul (2009).

Net Needle brings together the presiding influences of Adamson's life, early and late. He casts an affectionate eye on the Hawkesbury fishermen who ‘stitched their lives into my days’, childhood escapades, lost literary comrades, the light and tides of the river, and the ambiance of his youth. Throughout, he is characteristically attuned to the natural world, sketching encounters both intimate and strange. These are poems of clear-eyed vision and mastery, borne of long experience, alert and at ease.

'One of the finest Australian poets at work today.' – David Wheatley, Times Literary Supplement

‘Could it possibly be close to forty years ago when Bob Creeley and Robert Duncan first brought back the news about an extraordinary young Australian poet? I’ve avidly followed Bob Adamson’s work since those days, as he has probed the inner and outer landscapes of his environment with inspirited precision. “Praise life with broken words.” Eye and ear, none better.’ – Michael Palmer

About this title

About the Author

Robert Adamson (1943-2022) was born in Sydney and grew up in Neutral Bay and on the Hawkesbury River, New South Wales. During a tumultuous youth, he found his way to poetry, and over five subsequent decades he produced over 20 books of poetry and three books of prose. From 1970 to 1985 he was the driving force behind Australia’s New Poetry magazine, and in 1987, with Juno Gemes, he established Paper Bark Press, for two decades one of Australia’s leading poetry publishers. He was the inaugural CAL chair of poetry at UTS (University of Technology, Sydney) in 2011-14. He won many major Australian poetry awards, including the Christopher Brennan Prize for lifetime achievement, the Patrick White Award, The Age Book of the Year Award for The Goldfinches of Baghdad (Flood Editions, 2006) and the Victorian Premier’s Poetry Award for The Golden Bird (Black Inc, 2009). He published three books in Britain with Bloodaxe: Reading the River: Selected Poems (2004), The Kingfisher’s Soul (2009) and Net Needle (2016). A US edition, Reaching Light: Selected Poems, was published by Flood Editions in 2020.

Edition details

• Publisher: Bloodaxe Books Ltd
• Publication date: 2016
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1780373015
• ISBN 13: 9781780373010
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 96