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Poetry Reading: Andy Jackson
22 October 2026

Poetry Reading: Andy Jackson

The Readings Podcast

About
In this episode, a recording taken from the launch of poet Andy Jackson’s new collection, Askew. Jackson was joined by three other poets – Tim Loveday, Angela Costi and Rachael Wenona Guy – to read selections from Askew, and to present one of their own works, too.

Following his acclaimed exploration of disability and deformity in Human Looking, the poems in Andy Jackson’s new collection widen the lens, to feel their way into the impairments of our ecologies and our dialogues. How might our world itself be disabled? How can we live together within this reality?

These poems use an array of established and invented forms – sonnet, pantoum, erasure, prose poem, ghazal, cento and more – turning them to unusual effect under the pressure of our collective grief and bewilderment. They face the extinction and climate crises, the distortions of social media division, the fracturing of solidarity in the wake of the Covid pandemic, and the problems of masculinity with undaunted tenderness. They express, with an extraordinary intensity, the sense of vulnerability, both as human, and as poetic value.

Engaging in aslant conversation with musicians and composers, poets and artists, while reckoning with historical and contemporary thinkers, this is poetry that affirms the value of collaboration and interdependence, with all of its promise and difficulty.

Enjoyed what you heard? Click here to purchase the book: https://www.readings.com.au/product/9781923106772/askew--andy-jackson--2026--9781923106772