John Mateer, The Brewery Site: Six poems

The Brewery Site: six poems is a small gathering of a number of works written and ‘revisited’ over the course of half a decade. Based around a new, more spare version of his poem The Brewery Site - a poem, almost phantasmagoric, which descibes the poet’s haunting of site on Perth’s Swan River that was the locus of a dramatic contest between Nyoongar and white Australian rights – the work of this booklet is a statement, albeit allusive, on the predicament of an Australian poetics.

“John Mateer has been recognized by readers of many different tempraments and affiliations as one of the leading Australian poets of his generation…” Nicholas Birns, Antipodes

John Mateer has published books of poems in Australia, Austria and the UK, and chapbooks in various countries. He has been invited to read his work at many festivals, including PEN’s Free the Word in London. His latest books are The West: Australian Poems 1989-2009 (Fremantle Press) and Southern Barbarians (Giramondo).

Rare Object Number 37.
12 pages. Published 2004.
Cover image by Kay Orchison.