Fishing for Lightning: The Spark of Poetry

by Sarah Holland-Batt

Fishing for Lightning gathers together acclaimed poet and critic Sarah Holland-Batt’s celebrated columns on contemporary Australian poetry. In fifty illuminating and lively short essays on fifty poets, Holland-Batt offers a masterclass in how to read and love poetry, opening up the music of language, form, and poetic technique in her casual and conversational yet deeply intelligent style. From the villanelle to the verse novel, the readymade and the remix to the sonnet, Holland-Batt’s essays range across the breadth of contemporary poetry, but also delve into the richness of poetic and literary history, connecting the contemporary to the ancient. Dazzling in its erudition, but always accessible and entertaining, Fishing for Lightning convinces us of the power of poetry to change our lives.

Genres: Poetry, Nonfiction

296 pages, Paperback

Published December 28, 2021

About the author

Sarah Holland-Batt is the author of The Hazards (UQP, 2015), which won the poetry prize at the 2016 Prime Minister's Literary Awards, and Aria (UQP, 2008), which won the Thomas Shapcott Poetry Prize, the Arts ACT Judith Wright Award, and the FAW Anne Elder Award and was shortlisted in both the New South Wales and Queensland Premiers’ Literary Awards. She is presently a Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing at the Queensland University of Technology and the poetry editor of Island.

Reviews

[Blair · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely wonderful. This collection of columns that Holland-Batt wrote over the course of a year for the Weekend Australian serves both as a terrific anthology of recent Australian poetry and provides great insights into the craft of poetry.

[Fiona Wojtas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bizarrely, I found out about this book as the solution to an acrostics puzzle! It sounded perfect as a Christmas gift for an erudite brother-in-law, and when we had tracked it down, I also wanted a copy to read myself! I dipped into it over the course of a month, found poems that spoke to me immediately, which painted vivid word pictures, and others that were absolutely obscure until I read the author’s review and explanation of the poem. It has given me names of poets and their books of poems that I can look for when I am next in a bookshop, to read more of the poets whose examples I particularly enjoyed in this anthology.

[Jim F · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great way to be introduced to a variety of contemporary Australian poets. Holland-Batt gives a short intro essay to each poet and poem presented. She's clear-eyed and insightful in her reading of the poems.

[Gretchen Bernet-Ward · Rating 5 out of 5]

A superb book about contemporary poets and poetry, well written and presented in a readable, understandable format suitable for a wide variety of readers. For my first term of poetry class, this book was an invaluable resource for those scarce Australian women poets, many I did not know but whose poems proved to be insightful, subtle, sad, cutting and above all fascinating. Poetry has changed very much since I was at school (also the inclusion of Indigenous poets) and some of the work in this volume needs close concentration and thoughtful analysis. Compiled by Sarah Holland-Batt from an assorted mixture of modern verse, some were very short, some long and others written in interesting formats. For example 'Harsh Song' about bowerbirds in the grapevine by Robert Adamson is straight down the page with one word on each line but it has impact. 'Door 1' by Jennifer Harrison mixes TV with the murder of Gillian Meagher in short lines of cutting words, so true, so horrible. I will not explain the meaning of the book title but suffice to say I was disappointed that the words were quoted from an American president. However, I can see the significance between the key and the spark. Yes, contemporary Australian poets can mix it with the best.