Book Launch: Glen Phillips' Singing Granites & Shanghai Suite

Monday evening saw the launch of two books by the widely published poet, Glen Phillips. Planet Bookshop was the venue and its warehouse-style design always lends an earthy edge to such functions. From their cement floors with scattered rugs to the grandiose chandelier on the ceiling, the place seems just right for literary chat, far from the sterility of the book-chain outlets.

To launch Singing Granites, wheat belt born and bred poet John Kinsella did a clear job of defining the dissimilarities yet the vibrant connections between Glen Phillips and granites in the Australian landscape with Ann Born, English poet and her granites in the Devon landscape. Glen and John have worked together on various projects, and both have an affinity with the wheat belt area of Western Australia, so John's speech was both intimate with Glen's life and work, and illustrative of the literary themes of the book.

For all Glen's years as a teacher of literature and creative writing for students in Western Australia, his connections with China have grown a pace since he retired a couple of years back. He spends his time nowadays between The International Centre for Landscape and Language at Edith Cowan University and a Shanghai university. His second book launched on Monday evening was Shanghai Suite and Other Poems, a delightful little book published by the International Centre for Landscape and Language.

Professor Andrew Taylor, himself an internationally known Australian poet, launched this book by alluding to Glen's energy after his retirement - the fact that he could have simply rested after a life of teaching and creating opportunities for other writers in WA via writing centres, etc. But no, as Andrew pointed out, Glen has virtually started a new career by lecturing on Australian literature at the Shanghai University of Science and Technology. Andrew Taylor commented on the slightly different stylistic slant these poems have compared to the first book: they are certainly not copies of any Chinese style but they have an oblique imagery in them that seems to have come from the Chinese experience of the author.

The evening itself was a warm, wonderful night of friendship and literary gossip (none of which I am telling here!) I was lucky enough to introduce Jenny Davis, actor and theatre director, to a number of poets and friends, and it just went to show me the lack of connectivity between the various art forms in Perth. Jenny was there because she was playing host to Jennifer Compton, visiting Australian poet and playwright, whose latest play The Big Picture is on at the Subiaco Theatre Centre, staged by the Perth Theatre Company and Agelink, and directed by Jenny Davis.

I forgot my camera on the night, so the photos which accompany this small sketch have been generously donated by Sue Coughlan, poet, screenwriter and ex-convener and founder of The Poets'Corner.