Launch of Gardening on Mars at Avid Reader Bookshop
Schedule
Fri, 24 Oct, 2025 at 08:30 am
UTC+10:00Location
Avid Reader Bookshop | West End, QL
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ABOUT THE BOOKJane Frank’s third collection of poems —Gardening on Mars (Shearsman Books) transcends terrestrial boundaries, exploring profound connections between the natural world and human experience. Ranging from confessional and ekphrastic poems to surreal evocations of Australian place that express strong emotional connection, these poems maintain a rich dialogue with visual artists and writers of the past and present. Whether she is writing about hang gliding with Leonardo da Vinci, being lost inside a rainforest snow globe or witnessing a pinball game between galaxies, this is tactile and visual writing that bristles with striking language. Moving through her poems is like walking through a forest of imagery, layered and verdant, and is also an expedition through the fabled landscape of imagination and memory where love, longing and loss are familiar compass points. Her poems are often meditations on the joineries of life, the spaces where is meets was and might have been. The introspective is illuminating but thereis also an understanding of the ways in which the poet seeks to garden her own life in the face of personal and planetary challenges. The poet is accessible, empathetic and yet displays masterful form and craft. She makes us want to go with her, share the journey, wherever it ends.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jane Frank is a prize-winning Australian poet, editor and academic. Her previous poetry collections Ghosts Struggle to Swim (2023) and Wide River (2020) were published by Calanthe Press and her work is widely published in journals and anthologies in Australia and internationally. Her monograph Regenerating Regional Culture: A Study of the International Book Town Movement (2018) was published by Palgrave Macmillan in their Sociology of the Arts series. She is Reviews Editor at StylusLit literary journal and lectures in the School of Business and Creative Industries at the University of the Sunshine Coast.
6:00PM for 6:30PM—7:30PM
RSVP here: https://avidreader.com.au/pages/12930-JaneFrank-GardeningonMars
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Where is it happening?
Avid Reader Bookshop, 193 Boundary St, West End QLD 4101, Australia, West EndEvent Location & Nearby Stays:
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