Michael Farrell

In Family Trees Michael Farrell continues to question how humans relate - to each other, and to the nonhuman, the worlds of animals, plants and objects. Inheritance can be a heavy legacy but in Farrell's expansive rendering it frees itself: how do we connect? Through affection, and through sharing, swapping and listening. Family Trees sees the return of familiar characters such as Pope Pinocchio, alongside new figures Lord Marmalade, Cherry the 'Kiama Scammer' and Adam, a paranoid country English teacher. Presented in film-like scenarios, Farrell's characters are often busily thinking, while also participating in more mundane forms of activity - gossip and sleep and work. The book includes a number of South Coast poems that take a poking interest in how language blooms off-track. It's about memory, fantasy and the possibilities of living in conceptual space. Anything that has roots can be a family tree.

Youthful Irishman, whose adolescence coincides with the political rebellion in Ireland, joins the struggle for independence.

"This book rewrites the history of Australian literature, through reading the unorthodox poetics of colonial life writing, from letters to tree carvings. Farrell examines page, punctuation and grammar to present a new version of Australian literature, including texts by poets, bushrangers, Indigenous stockmen, a Chinese miner and migrant women" --

"Michael Farrell's second collection employs collage and layout in a poetic raid on popular culture, remixing Elton John, Emily Bronte, Gerard Depardieu and Dorothy Porter, in his typically irreverent way, which has been variously described as edgy, speedy, and 'a blitzkrieg of musicality'--Provided by publisher.