Year of the Wasp
ISBN: 9780994352859
Winner of the Vincent Buckley Poetry Prize
Shortlisted for the Prime Minister's Literary Awards
Finalist: Judith Wright Calanthe Award, Queensland Literary Awards.
Shortlisted for the John Bray Poetry Award
In 2012 poet and writer Joel Deane suffered a stroke. Suddenly he was a poet without language. Year of the Wasp tracks Deane’s journey to rediscover his poetic voice.
From these deeply personal origins Deane’s third poetry collection rises to confront the realities of politics and culture, language and love in contemporary Australia. It is a journey of poetic transfiguration that produces a work of unrivalled power, emotional intensity, and insight.
Joel Deane is the author of seven books, including The Norseman’s Song, Catch and Kill: the politics of power, and Magisterium, and has written speeches for Labor politicians such as Bill Shorten, Steve Bracks, and John Brumby. He has been a finalist for the Walkley Award and the Melbourne Prize for Literature, and been shortlisted for the Anne Elder Award and the Vincent Buckley Prize.
“It is rare and electrifying to read poetry with this much at stake. These poems are ‘written in blood ink’: everywhere charged with terror and longing. Written after a stroke, this collection line by line reflects the rage, strangeness, and transfigurative power of coming back into language and, by that, into the world again. This is Joel Deane’s masterwork. Wild, bitter, rapturous, it is his ‘Howl’ and ‘Book of Revelations’. Magnificent”
