News
A Greek Odyssey (The Song of the Mermaid)
Martin was seven years old when his parents took him to the island of Kalymnos. It was there that he began to speak Greek and to learn about Greek life and culture. The family's nine months on the island is described in Charmian Clift's book Mermaid Singing. In 2022 Nadia was invited to the island for the launch of the Greek translation of Mermaid Singing (photos from the launch can be found on Nadia’s website). This account of her journey was published in the Good Weekend, 29 October 2022.
2022 Memorial Poetry Reading, Saturday 15 October
What a wonderful Martin Johnston Memorial Poetry Reading we had on Saturday at the Garden Lounge in Newtown!
This year, poets are being invited to read a poem by Martin and also one or two of their own poems that they feel makes some sort of connection, in terms of form, voice, theme, or whatever. Thanks to all the readers — Mark Mahemoff, Lou Steer, Rozanna Lilley, Laurie Duggan, Roberta Lowing, Matt Rubinstein, and Michael Aiken. And thanks to Julian Neylan, for reminding us of some of the Martin-references in the essays of Charmian Clift. We also heard a recording of Martin reading his elegy for his mother, ‘Letter to Sylvia Plath’, and we finished with John Forbes’s ‘Elegy’, which John dedicated to Martin.
Thanks to Michael Aiken, for once again providing the wonderful venue of the Garden Lounge. And a huge thank you as well to Matt Rubinstein, for keeping Martin’s poetry in print, in Beautiful Objects.
Finally — thank you to everyone for coming!
Guests
Mark Mahemoff
Lou Steer
Rozanna Lilley
Julian Neylan
Laurie Duggan
Roberta Lowing
Matt Rubinstein
Michael Aiken
Guests
Funding call for Charmian Clift Documentary ‘Life Burns High’
The weekly newspaper column written by Australian writer Charmian Clift was one of the radicalising forces of the 1960s — espousing feminism and multiculturalism, opposing conscription and the war in Vietnam, acknowledging our role in Asia, fighting censorship, supporting the 1967 referendum on Aboriginal rights, opposing the fascist Junta in Greece, calling for an Australian film industry — and much more.
Film-makers Rachel Lane and Sue Millikin are seeking tax-deductible funding donations to kick-start their documentary about the life and political passions of this ground-breaking author. Even a small sum would help.
To donate, or to find out more about the project, go to the website https://documentaryaustralia.com.au/project/life-burns-high/
2021 Commemoration
On 20 June 2021 a number of Martin's friends, and also some newcomers to his work, gathered at the Garden Lounge bookshop/café in Newtown to celebrate his life and work on the day preceding the 31st anniversary of his death.
We did not want to repeat last year’s wonderful zoom-launch of Beautiful Objects, at which a moving launch-speech by Martin’s school friend Lex Marinos was followed by Martin’s fellow-poets reading from the anthology. So this year a new focus was Martin’s novel Cicada Gambit, and in particular its Bloomsday passages. Julian Neylan, who helped promote the event on his website www.sydneybloomsday.com, came up with the wonderful tagline:"If Greece has the Odyssey and Dublin Ulysses, then Sydney has Cicada Gambit”
The poems chosen for the program explored the themes of Greekness and chess, which are central to Cicada Gambit and also of course to Martin Johnston’s life.
They included the anonymous folk ballad ‘Pass by my Country,’ which Martin translated. In a deeply moving tribute, his SBS colleague Petro Alexiou read the original Greek version from Martin’s own beloved and battered copy of the anthology of folk ballads edited by the Greek scholar Fotos Politis.
After the readings we braved the rain to explore the landscape of Newtown and Enmore, where Martin was living in 1973-5 when he wrote Cicada Gambit, and where a number of its scenes are set. Appropriately for both Martin and the novel, we ended our celebration at the pub.
We thank all the readers, all the listeners, all the walkers, and all the pub crowd. And thanks to Michael Aiken at the Garden Lounge, who provided us with a place that Martin would have loved.
For the Cicada Gambit passages that were read or provided as information, click here.
A few photos from the event are included below. For more photos click here. (Photos by Ken Searle)
Mark Mahemoff reading at the Garden Lounge
Petro Alexiou reading at the Garden Lounge
Setting off on the Cicada Gambit walk
Viv and Nadia on walk
Stephen Clarke and Kevin Anderson in Cicada Gambit tunnel
At the pub after the walk
Photos by Ken Searle. For more photos click here.
Reviews of Beautiful Objects
Since the launch of Beautiful Objects it has picked up the following excellent reviews:
Aidan Coleman, Colorado Review, April 2022, https://coloradoreview.colostate.edu/reviews/beautiful-objects/
Sarah Holland-Batt, ‘Amid the Useless, but Beautiful’, The Australian, 5 December, 2020;
John Hawke, ‘Love is the Subject’, Australian Book Review, December 2020, no. 427.
New review of The Typewriter Considered as a Bee-Trap
Martin Duwell has published a new review of The Typewriter Considered as a Bee-Trap (posted 1 January, 2021) available online at: http://www.australianpoetryreview.com.au/2021/01/rereadings-v-martin-johnston-the-typewriter-considered-as-a-bee-trap/
Launch of Beautiful Objects, Gleebooks, 11 October 2020
Lex Marinos's moving tribute to Martin and Beautiful Objects is followed by readings by Martin's fellow poets (see program below). Owing to a technical hitch, the screen goes black for a moment before the poetry readings, and there is no image while Gig Ryan reads. But please be patient and keep watching. The picture will come back! We hope you enjoy this rich resource showcasing Martin's poetic legacy. Beautiful Objects is on sale from its publisher, Ligature.
Sydney Morning Herald article, 10 October, 2020
An article by Nadia Wheatley about Martin Johnston and Beautiful Objects was published in the Spectrum section of the Sydney Morning Herald on 10 October titled “Martin Johnston’s poetic legacy: The publication of his last poems marks the 30th anniversary of the untimely death of a literary son”.
An online version was also published.