34-37 Degrees South: Easy reading version

Introduction
From my window I can see,
Where the sandhills dip,
One far glimpse of open sea.
Dorothea Mackellar, ‘The Open Sea’ (c.1908)
Australians are a coastal bunch. Many of us live within 50
kilometres of the ocean. Our holidays, our tourism marketing, our
postcards with ‘Wish you were here’ feature turquoise oceans and
uncrowded sands. Even our national anthem references (albeit
awkwardly) our coastal lifestyle.
Given that, it seems natural that our poetry should turn to the sea
as a place of relaxation, pleasure and fond memories. Yet, while
celebrating the coast, these poems also speak of disasters such as
the fires of 2019-20, which affected so many on the coast, as well
as personal histories such as a car carking it in sight of the coast.
Train trips, dispossession, migration, love and loss are all here.
The collection is divided into three chapters. Coasting Along
features poems about journeys: international, regional and the
daily commute. Hyper-local showcases poems that celebrate place:
evocations of a bridge, a lake or a forest in blossom. The final
chapter On the Edge: Coastal Histories, Coastal Anxieties presents
poems about personal histories as well as worries for the future in
unstable times.
The editorial committee, Peter Frankis, Linda Godfrey and Judi
Morison, would like to thank each of the 24 poets who submitted
works to this our first digital anthology. To those who were selected,
bravo; to those who were unsuccessful this time, keep writing, keep
working at this most difficult craft.
Our thanks also to the reader panel—Linda Albertson, Norm
Fairbairn and Amelia Fielden—who, along with the committee, read
all 41 submissions and provided clear feedback and guidance. And
our thanks particularly to the fantastic Ms Tao Gower-Jones, the
University of Wollongong intern for this project for her work as
reader and with the editorial committee.
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