Sarah Holland-Batt

Holland-Batt's work has frequently been praised for its lyricism, linguistic precision, and metaphorical dexterity. Holland-Batt's debut collection, Aria, was described as "most impressive and haunting" by The Sydney Morning Herald, and as a "knockout" by leading Australian poetry critic Martin Duwell.[13] Writing in The Age, Robert Adamson described Aria as evidence that "Holland-Batt appears to be a major poet from the start".[14] In The Canberra Times, critic Peter Pierce likened Holland-Batt's "energetic approach to imagery" to that of Sylvia Plath, and praised her awareness of the "twin reserves of myth and metaphor".[15]

The Hazards, Holland-Batt's second volume, was praised as "a virtuoso performance" by The Sydney Morning Herald,[16] and "an absolute gem of a collection overspilling with poems of compelling urgency and dazzling accomplishment" by The Australian.[17] Writing in Australian Book Review, Cassandra Atherton commented on Holland-Batt's "stark and sumptuous lyricism" and described The Hazards as "a thrilling psycho-geographical evocation of physical and internal landscapes".[18] The judges of the Western Australian Premier's Book Prize observed that The Hazards is marked by "a kind of tough lyricism and an exacting use of language [that] makes for dramatic, assertive poetry" that imagines, "often through surprising metaphors, the 'real and imagined hazards' of living".[19] Geoff Page, writing in The Australian, likewise noted Holland-Batt's facility with metaphor: "The Hazards is dense with metaphorical energy ... in the service of substantial moral and psychological insights."[20]

Holland-Batt's third volume, The Jaguar, centres on the decline and death of the poet's father from Parkinson's disease.[21] Critics responding to The Jaguar have focussed on Holland-Batt's command of metaphor. Poet Judith Beveridge, writing in The Australian, observed that the poems in The Jaguar "are intensely moving not only for their tragic content but because of the way in which the subject matter is explored through dramatic and metaphorical ingenuity. Few poets can achieve this level of transformation, allowing their images to move with argumentative force."[22] Geoff Page, writing in The Sydney Morning Herald, states that "Holland-Batt’s highly metaphorical style has been influential on numerous younger Australian poets, although few seem to equal her almost conversational ease in the medium," and observes that Holland-Batt deploys satire and plain diction alongside "denser, more metaphoric writing": "it’s a mark of Holland-Batt’s self-confidence that she can employ such a sardonic manner alongside other poems that are more orthodoxly poignant."[23]

Collections

• Holland-Batt, Sarah (2008). Aria. St Lucia, Queensland: University of Queensland Press. ISBN 9780702236754.
• — (2015). The Hazards. St Lucia, Queensland: University of Queensland Press. ISBN 978-0-7022-5359-1.
• — (2022). The Jaguar. St Lucia, Queensland: University of Queensland Press. ISBN 9780702265501.

• — (2021). Fishing for Lightning: The Spark of Poetry. University of Queensland Press. Collection of 50 columns on poetry from The Australian

• The Best Australian Poems 2016 (Editor) (Black Inc., 2016). ISBN 978-1-8639-5962-9
• The Best Australian Poems 2017 (Editor) (Black Inc., 2017). ISBN 978-1-8639-5887-5

• The Best Australian Poems. (Melbourne: Black Inc., 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015)
• The Best Australian Poetry. Ed. David Brooks. (Brisbane: University of Queensland Press, 2008)
• The Puncher and Wattman Anthology of Australian Poetry. Ed. John Leonard. (Sydney: Puncher & Wattman, 2010)
• Being Human. Ed. Neil Astley. (U.K.: Bloodaxe Books, 2011)
• Thirty Australian Poets. Ed. Felicity Plunkett. (Brisbane: University of Queensland Press, 2011)
• Young Poets: An Australian Anthology. Ed. John Leonard. (Melbourne: John Leonard Press, 2011)
• The Best Australian Stories. (Melbourne: Black Inc., 2011, 2012)
• The Turnrow Anthology of Contemporary Australian Poetry. Ed. John Kinsella (Louisiana: Desperation Press/Turnrow Books, 2014).

List of poems

• "Epithalamium" (2018) Holland-Batt, Sarah (17 September 2018). "Epithalamium". The New Yorker. Vol. 94, no. 28. p. 52. Retrieved 13 November 2018.

• 2014 Holland-Batt, Sarah (September 2014). "Rough seas". Australian Book Review. 364: 12. Retrieved 29 December 2016., reviewing Parrett, Favel (26 August 2014). When the Night Comes. Hachette. ISBN 9780733627118.