Twenty-First-Century Australian Poetry

Abstract

This chapter surveys and defines twenty-first century Australian poetry via its most prominent subjects and concerns, discernable critical trends and movements, and the demographic and generational shifts that have occurred since the end of the twentieth century. Beginning with Australian poets’ central and enduring concern with the environment, place, and landscapes both urban and rural, we explore the manifold expressions of localised poetics, and the ongoing interrogation of ideas of home and belonging by Indigenous, settler and migrant poets alike. We then examine the effects of the institutionalisation of creative writing on the trajectory of Australian poetry, and explore the interdisciplinary turn in Australian poetry as it connects with diverse academic disciplines. We conclude with a discussion of international influences as they are expressed in Australian poetry, and Australia’s nascent influence on world poetries, arguing that as Australian poetry enters into maturity, the answer to what defines it increasingly resides at home.