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5 Islands Press 📚Poetry for Everyone.
🖋️Poems that give us back to our lives, to each other, and to the world.

Join us for the highly anticipated launch of “Wardrobe of Secrets” by Michael Leibowitz. 🗓️ Date: 28 Aug 2024 🕡 Time: 6:...
22/07/2024

Join us for the highly anticipated launch of “Wardrobe of Secrets” by Michael Leibowitz.

🗓️ Date: 28 Aug 2024
🕡 Time: 6:30 pm – 8:00 pm
📍 Location: Woollahra Library, Double Bay, 1/451 New South Head Rd, Double Bay NSW 2028, Australia

📚 About Michael
MICHAEL LEIBOWITZ’s journey with poetry began in his schooldays in South Africa, where memorising poems was a staple of his education. This reluctantly acquired skill has since blossomed into a lifelong passion, with the great poets of the past guiding him through his life as a two-time émigré. Despite writing poetry only during tumultuous times, a sabbatical during COVID unlocked his poetic potential, leading to his debut book, “Looking In.” Now, his second book, “Wardrobe of Secrets,” is ready to captivate readers.

📖 About the book
“WARDROBE OF SECRETS” explores the vast landscape of Michael’s inner life, capturing moments of tenderness and irritation, snippets of conversation, random phrases, and even fragments from the twilight zone between sleep and wakefulness. These diverse poems, some inspired by recent events and others brewed over decades, are unified by Michael’s inquisitive mind and his relentless quest for precision in expression. His honest and insightful observations shine through every verse.

📌 Link to register: https://www.5islandspress.com/event-details/book-launch-wardrobe-of-secrets/form



We’re delighted to announce the launch of Sue Lockwood’s debut collection, “The Flowering Dark,” at the Melbourne Athena...
01/07/2024

We’re delighted to announce the launch of Sue Lockwood’s debut collection, “The Flowering Dark,” at the Melbourne Athenaeum Library on August 31st. Join us for an unforgettable afternoon with Anne M Carson and MC Mark Tredinnick, 5 Islands Press Managing Editor. Registration opens late July on the Athenaeum Library website.

Sue’s elegant “Last Train,” included in the collection, is featured in the first edition of an exciting new online poetry journal, ‘The Marrow,’ launched on June 30th by Audrey Molloy, Daragh Byrne, and Natalie Bühler. Dive into this exquisite piece and more at: www.themarrowpoetry.com/issue-one-contents

“The Flowering Dark” isn’t just a collection of poems—it’s a literary masterpiece and a beautiful object waiting to adorn your bookshelf. Order your copy now from our online bookshop and be among the first to experience its beauty. 🌟 Link: www.5islandspress.com/category/all-products



📝 Ready for a challenge? Try your hand at “Rimas Dissolutas,” a poetic form from the 12th-13th centuries! No rhymes with...
20/06/2024

📝 Ready for a challenge? Try your hand at “Rimas Dissolutas,” a poetic form from the 12th-13th centuries! No rhymes within stanzas, no regular metrical structure, same syllable count per line, same number of lines per stanza, and rhymes across stanzas. Can you master it?

Submit your poem by July 18 for a chance to be featured in the 5 Islands Press anthology this November 2024. 🌟

Check out the link in our bio for entry details and all the rules: (https://www.5islandspress.com/post/challenge-in-the-tradition-of-the-troubadours)



Poetry is how the world goes; it’s what the world is; poems are how we catch the world, sometimes, in the act of Being w...
31/05/2024

Poetry is how the world goes; it’s what the world is; poems are how we catch the world, sometimes, in the act of Being what it is and becoming what it will. It is a kind of perpetual recreation of the miraculous actuality of the world and of ourselves.

Every human community has its own tradition of making poetry, and each makes a unique contribution to this most human of tasks. In Australia, we are blessed with a vibrant poetic landscape in which new work is being produced in dozens of different languages. Too much of it, however, is unknown beyond the linguistic community in which it is being created.

We need to change this. Poetry is an act of witness, and each tradition brings something unique to its witnessing. Understanding each other’s verses allows to truly meet each other—in all our glory and our frailty; in all our shared humanity.

Stay tuned for more information on our upcoming multilingual publications!

Share your thoughts in the comments!

Here are the wise words from the judges of the Newcastle Poetry Prize, judged in 2023 by Judith Nangala Crispin and John...
24/05/2024

Here are the wise words from the judges of the Newcastle Poetry Prize, judged in 2023 by Judith Nangala Crispin and John Foulcher. This is Australia’s foremost award for a single poem.

Although poetry is by its nature oracular, it’s not best written in a code that only the poet and their tribe can crack. The best poetry does not obscure the world; it reveals it in its interiority and deep humanity. The poem is a wondering and a witnessing; a fine poem is radically clear and it discloses the world in a moment or a place or a thought as a reader has never encountered it before and yet, reading the poem, seems to recognise it and her own life in it, as the reader had almost forgotten they were.

What do you think of this advice? Do you have any other insights on writing poetry? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

Calling all poetry enthusiasts! 📚✨ Share a poem that has touched your soul and opened your eyes to new perspectives. In ...
30/04/2024

Calling all poetry enthusiasts! 📚✨ Share a poem that has touched your soul and opened your eyes to new perspectives. In just 100 words, let us know why this piece resonates with you. The most compelling response will be rewarded with a free copy of Mark Tredinnick’s ‘Nine Carols’ and our complete 2024 publication lineup.

To enter, visit 5islandspress.com/favourites (link in bio).

5 Islands Press is proud to announce five new titles for 2024:📚 June: “The Flowering Dark” by Sue Lockwood📚 July: “Wardr...
23/04/2024

5 Islands Press is proud to announce five new titles for 2024:

📚 June: “The Flowering Dark” by Sue Lockwood
📚 July: “Wardrobe of Secrets” by Michael Leibowitz
📚 August: “Bright Crockery Days: Essays for Robert Gray,” Mark Tredinnick (ed)
📚 September: “Steep Curve” by Robyn Rowland
📚 October: “Calibrating Home” by Helen Swain

2025 is looking just as exciting. The April submission window—our first call-out for manuscripts—has just closed, and we’re about to dive into the nearly 140 proposals we received. Poetry is alive and well in the land, by the look of it. We’d like to thank everyone who submitted.

For more updates and further information, follow us and visit our website: 5islandspress.com (link in bio). Let us know in the comments what you’re most looking forward to about these upcoming releases.

📢 Calling all poets with manuscripts. Today’s the day! We are accepting submissions for our 2025 program from today, Apr...
15/04/2024

📢 Calling all poets with manuscripts. Today’s the day! We are accepting submissions for our 2025 program from today, April 16th until 6pm on April 22nd (AEST).

We’re looking forward to reading your work. Submit a sample of your best ten pages along with a short note about yourself for a chance to be shortlisted. If shortlisted, you’ll be invited to submit a full manuscript.

All guidelines and the submission form can be found here: 5islandspress.com/post/now-open

Stay tuned for updates and surprises by following us here and on Instagram! 🌟

Welcome to 5 Islands Press, where poetry becomes a bridge, connecting us to our lives, each other, and the world. 📖✨For ...
04/04/2024

Welcome to 5 Islands Press, where poetry becomes a bridge, connecting us to our lives, each other, and the world. 📖✨For the first time in over five years, we’re seeking submissions from poets 🎉 From 16th April to 22nd April (AEST), we’ll be open for submissions. Are you ready to share your poetic voice with us?

We’re on the lookout for well-crafted poems that are insightful and moving, capable of captivating intelligent and attentive readers. Submit a sample of your best ten pages along with a short note about yourself. If shortlisted, you’ll be invited to submit a full manuscript for our 2025 program.

Submissions must be made electronically via our new website which will be launched next week.

Stay tuned for updates by following us here and on Instagram.

Another wonderful tribute to Ron Pretty here. I'll be adding links like those included here to the Five Islands Press we...
06/07/2023

Another wonderful tribute to Ron Pretty here. I'll be adding links like those included here to the Five Islands Press website's Ron Pretty page as I see them. Anyone who has material they want added to this page can email me at: [email protected]

It is with sadness that Rochford Street Review learnt of the death of Poet, Publisher and Editor Ron Pretty on 30 June 2023.

Very sad to hear the news of Ron Pretty's passing - indeed a towering figure in Australian poetry.
04/07/2023

Very sad to hear the news of Ron Pretty's passing - indeed a towering figure in Australian poetry.

It with deep sadness that we share the news that Australian poet Ron Pretty passed away peacefully on Friday 30th June. Ron has been a towering figure in Australian poetry for more than fifty years.

As founder and publisher of Five Islands Press he published over 230 books by Australian poets, an achievement commemorated by the annual Ron Pretty Prize. Over the years, Ron has been a role model, friend and mentor for many of Australia's finest poets. His textbook *Creating Poetry* is an essential handbook, now in its 3rd edition and still widely used in creative writing courses across the country.

Here at Pitt Street Poetry we know him best as a practising poet, producing some of his finest work in a late flowering over the last decade. We published two new collections, *What the Afternoon Knows* in 2013 and *The Left Hand Mirror* in 2017, followed by *101 Poems* in 2022, a timely survey collection of 'greatest hits', launched last August by fellow poet Peter Frankis at the South Coast Writers Centre - which Ron helped to found so many years ago.

Sitting here bleeding ink again tonight,
I know this is another letter I will not send.
Sleep well, old friend: I'll never find the words,
But my love, my care is with you always.

Ron Pretty. 'Letter, unsent'

03/06/2022
Back in 2020 when it looked like Five Island Press would cease completely we instead changed hands (for the second time)...
03/06/2022

Back in 2020 when it looked like Five Island Press would cease completely we instead changed hands (for the second time) and have continued to take small steps forward, creating a new website which hosts free PDFs of some of our author’s books, republishing second editions of a number of our books and even putting a new book out. Over time we hope this new website can become a comprehensive record of the ongoing 36-year journey of the press. If you are a Five Islands Press author and we haven’t listed an author page on the website for you yet, or you’d like your existing one updated with links to your most recent publications (or anything else), please get in touch. https://www.fiveislandspress.com.au/

03/06/2022

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