Waiting for the Past

Waiting for the Past
AuthorLes Murray
LanguageEnglish
GenrePoetry collection
PublisherBlack Inc
Publication dateApril 2015
Publication placeAustralia
Media typePrint
Pages112 pp
Awards2015 Queensland Literary Awards — Judith Wright Calanthe Award, winner; 2016 Adelaide Festival Awards for Literature – John Bray Poetry Award, winner
ISBN9781863957137

Waiting for the Past is a collection of poems by Australian poet Les Murray, published by Black Inc in 2015.

The collection contains 64 poems reprinted from a number of literary journals and with some being published here for the first time.

Contents

Critical reception

In a review of the collection in Australian Book Review Stephen Edgar noted that "A number of the poems are striking evocations of the natural world, with or without a human presence." He went on to say of Murray that he "is a man of strong opinions, which appear in his poems from time to time, he also has negative capability, in spades, and is able to submit his consciousness to alien states and beings, inhabit them, and bring forth poems of startling originality in extraordinary language."

Sean O'Brien, for The Guardian newspaper, called the collection "transcendental". He went on to comment that "the world Murray renders is close at hand even for the remotest reader. It is completely lived in. It is handled, worked, scented, mapped, celebrated, lamented, and its people honoured in both presence and memory."

Awards

Notes

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Waiting for the Past by Les Murray". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 31 August 2026.
  2. 1 2 "Austlit — Waiting for the Past by Les Murray". Austlit. Retrieved 31 August 2026.
  3. ↑ "'Waiting for the Past' by Les Murray". Australian Book Review, May 2015. Retrieved 31 August 2026.
  4. ↑ "Waiting for the Past by Les Murray review – matter-of-fact extravagance". The Guardian. 7 November 2015. Retrieved 31 August 2026.
  5. ↑ ""2015 Queensland Literary Awards"". The Queensland Cabinet and Ministerial Directory. Retrieved 11 January 2024.
  6. ↑ "South Australian Literary Awards". State Library of South Australia. Retrieved 31 August 2026.
  7. ↑ Convery, Stephanie (17 October 2016). "Prime Minister's Literary awards 2016: novel with print run of 350 makes shortlist". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Archived from the original on 8 December 2022. Retrieved 10 March 2023.