| |
| | John Tranter reviews "The Penguin Book of Australian Women Poets". ed. Susan Hampton and Kate Llewellyn (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-02) |
 | | Less than a fifth of the way into this book we are among contemporary poets, and overall, most of the contributors are in their 40s or younger (eighteen of the poets are under 35); young enough to have been developing their work when the latest phase of the women’s movement was at its height. |
 | | Those statistics are depressing for women, and the editors firmly note them in their Introduction: ‘In fifteen well-known collections of Australian poetry published since 1970, the average of female authors selected was 17 per cent. |
 | | To me, it says clearly that Australia’s women poets have come out of the sweatshops, the farming country, the Depression, the kitchens, the typing pools and the troubled 70s rich with talent, confidence and energy. |
| johntranter.com /reviewer/1986-penguin-women.html (864 words) |
|