Though I have been international editor for the Kenyon Review for over fourteen years now, this is the first chance I’ve had to compile a selection of Australian work for the journal. Although I have recently enjoyed editing The Turnrow Anthology of Contemporary Australian Poetry for an American audience, its particularly edifying to be able to present a range of “genres” in this special issue.
Selected in conjunction with my friend and the Review’s editor, David Lynn, the work that follows gives a cross section of one of many different collective interpretations of contemporary Australian literary practice. It is easy to make a claim that a country’s literature is going through a rich period of creative energy; in essence, this is de rigueur for the collector, collator, or anthologiser to claim. Most often this is probably true if enough people have desired and bothered to produce such a selection. I present this selection not so much in an aesthetic light (which I always suspect as being more curatorial and illustrative than generative) but rather in the light of necessity, of compulsion.
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