In Lucky Country, Gail Holst-Warhaft shifts her focus from Greece, where so many of her poems and other writings have been set, to Australia and to her own family. Several poems are about her father, who came from the slums of London to make his fortune in what was called, in those days, "The Lucky Country." Others are about her great grandmother, her grandfather, and her mother. Poems set in Ithaca, New York, where she has lived for nearly forty years, reveal the poet's love of the landscape surrounding her. The volume ends with set of poems dedicated to the memory of Holst-Warhaft's mentor and friend, the brilliant British poet, critic, and literary biographer, Jon Stallworthy.
About the Author
Gail Holst-Warhaft was born in Australia. Besides being a poet she has been a journalist, broadcaster, prose writer, academic, musician, and translator. In the 1970's, while researching a book on Greek music, Holst-Warhaft performed as a keyboard-player with Greece's leading composers, including Mikis Theodorakis. She has published translations of Aeschylus, and of a number of modern Greek poets and prose-writers. Her poems and translations of Greek poetry have appeared in journals in the US, the U.K., Australia, and Greece. Her most recent book is The Fall of Athens (Fomite, 2016).
