Tracy Ryan

Water is contained in these poems in many different ways: from the water filling a second-hand cooler in an old farmhouse to ocean riptides and impassive dams; from swimming lessons to paddocks layered with water after rain. From scheme water, pipelines and a countryside in the grip of drought - the water in this collection is a many-sided metaphor. Tracy Ryan's latest collection of poems is full of intimate intensity and clear vision, each poem wrought with consummate skill by "one of Australia's most gifted poets" (Marion May Campbell).

The Fremantle Press Anthology of Western Australian Poetry is a comprehensive survey of the state's poets from the 19th century to today. Featuring work from 134 poets, and including the work of many WA Indigenous poets, this watershed anthology brings together the poems that have contributed to and defined the ways that Western Australians see themselves.

Unearthed is a collection of elegies for dead friends and a tribute to Ryan's embattled but joyous life on a bush block. In a long sequence addressed to her Swiss-German first husband, Ryan delves into unresolved grief and the ambivalent feelings that remain after severing intense relationships. Unearthed is Tracy Ryan's seventh full-length collection. According to Geoff Page, this is 'the poet at her mature and forensic best'.

Poems of keen appraisal and survival, bound by a cohesive vision, form this collection, whichfeatures the work of Australian poet Tracy Ryan. Revealing the poet s preoccupation with mortality, this compilation deals with the cold cross-examiner death by responding with life."