No of Pages: 124
RRP: 24.95
ISBN Print: 978-1-876040-94-9
The View From Here
“Many of Deb Westbury’s finest and most memorable poems have been composed during her time at Varuna as teacher and visitor. Poems in all four books represented in this collection, as well as the new work, reflect her experiences as observer, participant and traveller through the lives of the people, cultures, times and places through which she has moved in these years – hence the title of this new and selected – The View from Here. From working class origins in Wollongong amongst the migrants’ smokestacks of Port Kembla – through intimate involvement in the many lives from inner Western Sydney, to America, and back again to the Blue Mountains – Westbury’s voice has retained its poise, its quiet understated mastery of language and emotion, while retaining a true gift for arresting imagery.”
“As the titles of this and her four earlier collections indicate, Deb Westbury is very much a poet of the senses. In The View from Here twenty years of observation and experience, love and loss, have been transformed into poetry remarkable for its clarity of vision and depth of emotion.” – Elizabeth Webby
“Deb Westbury’s poems sing with insight, with clear observation and a stylishly agile turn of phrase.” – Brenda Walker
About the Author
Deborah Westbury has been a familiar voice in Australian poetry since her work began appearing in Australian literary magazines and in various anthologies throughout the 1970’s and 80’s. Mouth to Mouth, her first collection, was published in 1990 and was added to the HSC syllabus in 1998. Westbury developed a dual career as a distinguished writer and teacher of writing. Throughout the 1990’s she taught courses in Creative Writing at UOW, James Cook University, at the University of Western Sydney, and The College of Fine Arts – University of NSW. Poems in all four of Deborah’s previous collections are represented in her new and selected The View from Here published by Brandl & Schlesinger in 2008, as well as the new work, reflecting her experiences as observer, participant and traveller through the lives of the people, cultures, times and places through which she has moved in these years, from working class origins in Wollongong amongst the migrant’s smokestacks of Port Kembla – through intimate involvement in the many lives from inner Western Sydney, to America, and back again to the Blue Mountains – Westbury’s voice has retained its poise, and its quiet understated mastery of language and emotion, while retaining a true gift for arresting imagery. Deborah died in March 2018.
Read More