What's New? Videos, sound recordings, essays, poems, etc

* In November and December 2011 the fifth and sixth parts of the series 'Alchemy and the Imagination' were added. The fifth article is entitled 'Hermes Negatively Polarised (1)' which examines key aspects of contemporary society and culture from the perspective of archetypal psychology. The most recent article Hermesian Epidemics (the 6th in the series) concerns a range of psychological and relational maladies apparently epidemic in our age. Both articles come from an adapted Jungian/archetypal perspective. 

*December 8th 2011. 'Coral Reveries: Pt.1 of 'Darwinian Poetics' added. These dozen or so poems mine Darwin's 'The Voyage of the Beagle' to explore Darwin's dawning awareness, as young man, that his 'received knowledge' regarding the nature of the cosmos was wrong. The poems also explore the so-called 'Death of God' theme, aspects of modernity and Darwin's essentially melancholic response to his discoveries. Darwin's lyrical prose style is also evident in some of the borrowed/sampled/reconstituted phrases that dot this small collection of poems.

* November 2011: Painted Words 7 contains poetry, shorter fiction and creative non-fiction pieces from a range of emerging Victorian writers. This year it has been published both as a print journal available from the Mines bookshop BRIT AND as a Kindle e-book (available from Amazon.com). Click on the link for more details. The book was launched by Victorian poet and writer John Holton and has alreayd had favourable press coverage.
  

* Amazon.com has recently created a 'look inside' function for my non-fiction book concerning psycholspiritual maladies in the modern/postmodern world. To access: The Angel of Luxury and Sadness. See also the look inside function for my novel: Dream-Dust Parasites.

* Since February a dozen articles in my series 'Creativity Revolutions' have been added to the site aimed at helping poets, fiction writers and creative thinkers generally to understand some of the major historical 'creativity' innovations (also to think about issues related to their own particular "poetics"): To get started on the content of some of these articles go to: 'Contemporary Poetic Revolutions' NB: Many of the other articles in the series can be accessed via links at the top right of that page.

* Publications by Dr. Ian Irvine Mercurius Press Australia (at the Gem99 publishing assistance site) - peruse Ian's growing catalogue of downloads (some free some with a fee) related to low cost digital publications e.g. Essays, Non-Fiction books, Poetry collections, Fiction books/collections, anthologies etc. AND  MP3 recordings of lecturers/public talks etc. Mercurius Press will publish work concerned with: 1) the role of creativity and the imagination in contemporary society; 2) studies concerning the new Digital publishing revolution; 3) works exploring the shape of possible anti-oppressive forms of 'poetic' in this new environment. It will also publish experimental literary texts in the genres of poetry and fiction writing. The publishing house will also work to publish non-fiction texts concerned with the psychological benefits of living a creative life in the modern world.  

* In November links to new articles in the 'Alchemy and the Imagination' series were added to the site. See the articles: Alchemy and the Imagination - Part 1 (Ian Irvine), Alchemy and the Imagination Part 2: The Role of Hermes, Jung, Alchemy and Active Imagination, Hermes and Postmodern 'Creativity' - Pt4 of 'Alchemy and the Imagination' and 'Hermes Negatively Polarised - Pt 5 of Alchemy and the Imagination' (added November 27th 2011).

* Full list of my lectures, public talks and conference presentations 1994-2010. [NB: Please feel free to contact me through this site if you wish to engage me to deliver either a series of talks or one off presentations].

* My You-Tube 'channel' featuring old Goya's Child songs with video add ons plus recent travel video has been operational - go to: Channel View of various Goya's Child (1).

* In late October an article on the demise of print-based traditional Literary journals entitled Print-Based Literary Journals and the Mutations of Thoth, as well as a list of texts useful to contemporary poets entitled Ian's List of Foundation Books for Contemporary Poets, were added to the site.

*In October an article [Go to: Bendigo Weekly - Feature Article on Ian Irvine] exploring Ian's previous career as a professional sportsman went up at the Bendigo Weekly newspaper site.

*In October-November a selection of new poems was added to the site - see Where Have You Buried the Poets?; Various Poems by Ian Irvine (Hobson); The Paper Icon and the Genie - by Ian Irvine; The Poet's Super - by Ian Irvine; The First Hint of a Realist Sun - Poem by Ian Irvine; Four Poems on Desacralisation and Disenchantment and Europe After the Rain - Ian Irvine.

* August 25th 2010: Go to a video & audio site featuring Ian's lament for the environment:  'The Force of Progress: Cosmic Suicide' copyright 1998-2010 all rights reserved. 

* August 2010 - 'The History of Goya's Child (1)' including access to old live recordings and some recent videos by the band as well as links to Goya's Child (2) material, some discussion as to the origins of the band's name, and a list of songs written by Goya's Child (1).

* July 15th 2010  (up-dated October 2010) - Four videos of megalithic sites taken during recent UK trip. Go to '2010 Summer Solstice at Stonehenge', In Search of Cerridwen's Cauldron, copyright Ian Irvine and Philip Irvine 2010, all rights reserved.

*July 15th 2010 : Go to an Mp3 recording of audio presentation of poems related to a visit to Vietnam in 2007. Vietnamese Segue - WMA recording of poems by Ian Irvine by Ian Irvine (Hobson) copyright, 2007-2010.
 

I am influenced by?

Many other writers, poets and creative thinkers have been inspirational to me over the years (please see the link to my 'Links Page' below to view the pages of some of the writers (and general websites related to writing) mentioned below..

Firstly two close friends: John Charalambous (author of the novels Furies and Silent Parts) and John Holton (short story writer/poet/editor and journalist). Secondly you might want to check out two of Australia's new generation poets, John Kinsella and Alison Croggon. The following have also been inspirational recently: US poetry theorist/critic Marjorie Perloff (if you want a crash course on the Anglo-American avant garde in particular this is your site), the Fluxos Portal , Michel Houellebecq (contemporary French Novelist), Postmodern Culture (online ezine), The American Academy of Poets, UBU poetics (Experimental/Avant garde US poetry), UBU Ethnopoetics (curated by Jerome Rothenberg), Sulfur (edited by Clayton Eshelman author of Hades in Manganese), Ron Silliman, Gary Snyder , Robert Duncan, Adrienne Rich and Charles Bernstein. For a fascinating psychology site upon which I base aspects of my emerging TRP poetic visit Holotropic Breathwork.

See also the work of my friends and colleagues over the years: Justin D'Ath; Sara Douglass and Jennifer Ley (groundbreaking US representative of the 'digital avant Garde' in poetics). Lynne Kelly (writer and aunt - kind of) has also been inspirational. I'm also fascinated by the writings of Australian academics Sue Gillett, David Tacey and Harry Oldmeadow.

Fiction writers, poets and thinkers connected to Central Victoria - or who are friends - are turning up in all kinds of national (Australian) and international publications these days. Here are some names (of friends and fellow writers/poets) to look out for: Mary Pomfret, (novelist/SS writer) Carmel Williams (SS writer/lyricist), Penny Sell (NZ novelist/SS writer), Bruce Oakman (poet/SS writer - author of InDefence of Hawaiian Shirts), Tru Dowling (poet/performance poet), John Snowdon (fiction writer/musician), Miranda Aitken (poet/lyricist), Pam Harvey (young adult writer/SS writer/non-fiction writer), Graham Borrell (novelist/poet - author of 'Coogee and the Hunters' isbn978-064645692-8), Jennifer Melbourg (poet/creative non-fiction/fiction), Dr. Grant Hannis (Kiwi journalist/academic/muso and old schoolfriend) and Dr. Lisa Jackobson (poet/SS writer). My Welsh brother, Philip Irvine, as well as being a designer of software systems, is also a writer.

I'd also like to mention the work of my partner of many years Sue King-Smith (poet/non-fiction writer/academic) who has just been awarded her PhD  by Deakin University. Her exegesis develops a contemporary political poetics of great relevance to writers and poets interested in social justice issues - the work also contained a significant creative component. In 2008 Sue had her first poetry collection, 'An Accumulation of Small Killings', published by MPU Melbourne (submitted for the Victorian Writers Prize for Poetry) and her poems, essays and stories have been extensively published both here in Australia and overseas.

For more details about some of these writers, influences or websites about wrtiting go to: links pages. Enjoy!