Join us at Smith's Alternative for the launch of two new Recent Work titles:

Nightmares Run Like Mercury is Paul Collis’ first collection of poetry, and is a book of difficult truths and profound connections. It charts a life lived on the streets, on country, in the deep time of tradition, of relationships to land and family. This book mourns those who have passed, and the current state of places and people held close in the heart and in the kinds of knowledge inseparable from self that might be called ‘being’, but is always much more than that. It is also a poetry of hope in the hopeless, of beauty in small moments, and the overwhelming ‘now’ that is memory.

Rare Bird by James Lucas. Intellectually ambitious and culturally engaged, these poems speak of Sartre, Zola and Jackson Pollock, of Western Australia’s firewatch trees and Dubbo’s gibbons, of the poet-batsman Stevie Smith, of youth and age. Ranging in form, James Lucas’s poems ask to be reread rather than assented to, and are written in the belief that poetry is both solvent and fresh lick of paint.

Open Mic: Limited to 10 poets reading for 3 mins each. Spaces can be reserved on the night, or pre-booked by emailing contact@recentworkpress.com.

Entry is free but booking is recommended as numbers are limited. REGISTER HERE.