Paul Magee
Later Unearthed
Puncher & Wattmann, 2025
The title poem of Later Unearthed discourses upon the inexorably preposterous House of Saxe-Coburg und Gotha, in the person of King George V. The tale of James Macpherson, who was catapulted into the belly of a whale, is just as odd, though sadder. Paul Magee has a sharp eye and musical ear, with a tone that is always fellow human. The middle sequence in the book, Dreaming in Bourke, is an account of time in the Barkindji town of Bourke, outback New South Wales, where cotton sucks the river dry, dragonflies mirror sunrise and floods lie in wait till they flood. There are translations from Silver and Medieval Latin, and a selection of modernist Russians, lamenting catastrophe or foreboding revolution.
Writing is a world
where oceans are tiny.
About the Author
Paul Magee studied in Melbourne, Moscow, San Salvador and Sydney. His latest book of verse, Later Unearthed (Puncher and Wattmann, 2025), includes a number of translations from Russian, and also from Latin. Stone Postcard (John Leonard Press, 2014) was named in Australian Book Review as one of the books of the year for 2014. Cube Root of Book (John Leonard Press, 2006), was shortlisted in the Innovation category of the 2008 Adelaide Festival Awards for Literature. Other works include Suddenness and the Composition of Poetic Thought (Rowman and Littlefield, 2022), which is based on Australian Research Council funded investigations into the nature of poetic composition. Paul is Professor of Poetry and Director of the Centre for Creative and Cultural Research at the University of Canberra.
