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Gina Mercer

Gina Mercer

Gina Mercer enjoys a three-stranded career as writer, teacher, and editor. She has taught creative writing and literature in universities and communities for thirty years. She was Managing Editor of Island magazine, 2006–10. She has published a novel, Parachute Silk (Spinifex Press, 2001) and two academic books (UQP, 1994; Peter Lang, New York, 2001).

Gina has published five collections of poetry: The Ocean in the Kitchen (Five Islands Press, 1999), Night Breathing (Picaro Press, 2006), Handfeeding the Crocodile (Pardalote Press, 2007), and Seasoned with Honey (with three other women poets, Walleah Press, 2008). Her most recent collection, Weaving Nests with Smoke and Stone (Walleah Press, 2015), is all about birds.

'Little Women: Helen Garner, sold by weight' by Gina Mercer

June 1986, no. 81 • 01 June 1986
'Little Women: Helen Garner, sold by weight' by Gina Mercer
The publishing world and other allied industries, namely the media and literary critics, tend to promote authors on a ‘star’ system. Especially women writers. They allow certain women to become ‘flavour of the month’. Recently, if you remember, it was Beverley Farmer, and then Kate Grenville. For a short period, every newspaper, magazine, or radio program with a literary bent featured them ... (read more)

'After, there are the birds' by Gina Mercer | States of Poetry Tasmania - Series Two

States of Poetry Tasmania - Series Two • 19 April 2018
He sends me photosof the singular crimson rosellawho observes him through the kitchen windowas he cooks dinner for one. He sends me boxes of her best clothes:designer jackets, silk shirts, tailored trousers.Asks me to share them among familyeven though she was the size of a wrenand we’re all currawongs. He sends me photo after poignant photoof white-breasted sea eagles,     ... (read more)

'Rapides' by Gina Mercer | States of Poetry Tasmania - Series Two

States of Poetry Tasmania - Series Two • 19 April 2018
La rivière Bow, Banff, Spring 2016 The light gets tired, he writes, and I wonder if water, too, can get weary with all that flowing & sliding & washing away. In the hotel swimming pool the water looks weary, constantly banging its soft body against concrete, making the effort to dimple upwards when disturbed, entered, by our alien soft bodies. Unable to affect any kind of escape, all mea ... (read more)

'Extracts from "The Dictionary Aquatic"' by Gina Mercer | States of Poetry Tasmania - Series Two

States of Poetry Tasmania - Series Two • 19 April 2018
Extracts from The Dictionary Aquatic Burble Distinctive mating call of wild creeks. Rarely heard in cities where this species has been driven underground, incarcerated in lightless, concrete tunnels. Such conditions have proved unconducive to reproduction or generation. Cloud A mobile, aerial animal composed entirely of water. Best viewed from above. Best viewed from below. Best viewed from wi ... (read more)