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David Gilbey

David Gilbey is Adjunct Senior Lecturer in English at Charles Sturt University in Wagga Wagga, President of Booranga Writers' Centre and Hon Secretary of ASAL.

David Gilbey reviews 'The Passion Paintings: Poems 1983–2006' by Aileen Kelly

April 2007, no. 290 01 April 2007
David Gilbey reviews 'The Passion Paintings: Poems 1983–2006' by Aileen Kelly
On a recent plane trip from Wagga to Sydney, I was talking to an engineer who uses X-ray technology to examine the deep structure of aircraft after stress, to assess airworthiness. Complicated, fascinating, with considerable and direct bearing on passenger safety. By way of exchange, I read him parts of Aileen Kelly’s ‘Simple’, an impressive poem that, in three stanzas, X-rays the history of ... (read more)

David Gilbey reviews 'Christina Stead' by Jennifer Gribble, 'Janet Frame: Subversive fictions' by Gina Mercer, and 'The Ironic Eye: The poetry and prose of Peter Goldsworthy' by Andrew Riemer

August 1994, no. 163 01 August 1994
I am enmeshed in criticism. Criticism defines and speaks me. I criticise, therefore I have a job. But criticism is a tricky business. It’s partial, changes from one time/place/person to another (as Jennifer Gribble acknowledges). I’m not an expert on Janet Frame or Christina Stead (although I’ve included books by each on courses in the past) and my awareness of Peter Goldsworthy’s oeuvre ... (read more)

David Gilbey reviews 'Masculinities and Identities' by David Buchbinder

October 1994, no. 165 01 October 1994
David Gilbey reviews 'Masculinities and Identities' by David Buchbinder
Running hot on the national Austlit Discussion Group email waves recently was the question of speaking position and voice for men in contemporary critical discourse. What had occasioned the discussion was ASAL’s annual conference in Canberra, part of which had been a very successful morning at the Australian War Memorial focussing on writing and war (e.g. Alan Gould and Don Charlwood). On the c ... (read more)

David Gilbey reviews 'The Common Rat' by Carmel Bird

February–March 1993, no. 148 01 February 1993
David Gilbey reviews 'The Common Rat' by Carmel Bird
There are some pretty ambiguous rats in this collection and most of them are male but ultimately, it’s the writer’s own unease that cumulatively gnaws away at happiness and achievement. Take the scene in ‘Soldier of the Round Valleys’ at Grandma’s eighty-something birthday where she ‘cuts the cake and makes a wish’: But as she cuts the cake, leaning over the table and pressing ha ... (read more)

David Gilbey reviews 'El Dorado' by Dorothy Porter

May 2007, no. 291 01 May 2007
David Gilbey reviews 'El Dorado' by Dorothy Porter
Dorothy Porter’s verse novels are delicious and distancing, formal, fiery and frenetic. With the possible exception of What a Piece of Work (1999), they get better and better. Early on, El Dorado smacks you in the face and strokes your imagination with a ‘little girl’s / dead hand / … sticking stiffly / up / as if reaching / to grab an angel’s / foot’. Framed by epigraphs from Gilgames ... (read more)