The Water Bearer

by Tracy Ryan

Water is contained in these poems in many different ways: from the water filling a second-hand cooler in an old farmhouse to ocean riptides and impassive dams; from swimming lessons to paddocks layered with water after rain. From scheme water, pipelines and a countryside in the grip of drought – the water in this collection is a many-sided metaphor. Tracy Ryan’s latest collection of poems is full of intimate intensity and clear vision, each poem wrought with consummate skill by "one of Australia’s most gifted poets" (Marion May Campbell).

96 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 2018

About the author

Tracy Ryan is a Western Australian poet and novelist. She was particularly well-known in the 1990s as a trailblazing feminist poet, with early collections as 'Killing Delilah' and 'Bluebeard in Drag'. Such poetry collections reflected the fraught nature of the the times regarding the end of second-wave feminism, through her experiences as poet, woman, mother, partner and the inhabitant of politicised body in a politicised space.

Ryan has worked various jobs in libraries, bookselling, editing, community journalism and university teaching. She has a BA in English from Curtin University, studied European languages at the University of Western Australia, and finished with a BA (Hons) in French from the University of New England in NSW. She is especially interested in foreign languages and the translation of poetry.

Ryan's poetry has been compared, by poet Dorothy Hewett, with Sylvia Plath, and Debra Zott, in her review of Hothouse, agrees, saying that "certainly, there are [in Ryan's poetry] the mythic underpinnings one finds in Plath's poetry, as well as that quality of imbuing the personal with highly dramatised mythic proportions" and that "it is no secret that Ryan has been influenced by Plath". However, she argues that "the very mention of Plath's name shapes, and threatens to place limits on, the reader's experience of Ryan's poetry", that "Tracy Ryan's poetry does not need the Plath myth to prop it up".

In 2001, Ryan said the following about her writing in a session with the Virginia G Piper Centre for Creative Writing:

I don’t adhere to any particular school of thought, except in the broadest sense that my writing is inextricably bound up with my feminism. This would be the only real connector between my books. I am interested in trying to find ways in which language may be interrupted, disrupted and rejigged for feminist purposes (among others). Usually this attempt would arise from something in either my personal life or the world around me. My home state is currently enacting a legal clamp-down on women, with regard to street prostitution—passing laws that restrict women’s movements and rights to occupy space. Though such factors are often what ‘provokes’ me into a poem, the poem equally draws life off other books (like most poets, I spend a lot of time reading). I work by a kind of principle of immersion in particular poets at particular times."

Notable awards and short-listings:

Western Australian Premier’s Book Award, Poetry (Shortlisted 2014)

NSW Premier’s Literary Award, Kenneth Slessor Prize (Shortlisted 2012)

Western Australian Premier’s Book Award, Poetry (Winner 2012)

Australian Book Review Poetry Prize (Winner 2009)

The Age Book of the Year Award, Poetry (Shortlisted 2008)

Trudie Graham Award for Memoir (Winner 2007)

Western Australian Premier’s Book Award (Winner 2000)

National Book Council’s Banjo Award (Commended 1997)

Western Australian Premier’s Book
Award (Shortlisted 1994, 1998)

Mattara Poetry Prize (Winner 1987)

Reviews

[Jamie (treesofreverie) McMahon · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really appreciate the delicacy and density of this collection. In both reading and reflecting on it, I'm left feeling much like how the main theme of this book - water - can leave us feeling... With both a sense of heaviness and lightness. A weighing down and the blissful sense of floating serenely.

There were parts I felt compelled to reread, to allow myself time to let the words sink in. In other moments, I felt an immediate reaction to what unfolded in these narratives. I particularly enjoyed the longer pieces that flowed on in parts. 'Life in Water' and 'The Water Bearer' are two such examples, both favourites of mine. This collection of poems is beautifully written and I often felt an intimate connection with the nature-based themes. The way the human condition is touched upon is witty and insightful, and highly relatable.

This is the first of Tracy Ryan's works that I've had a pleasure of reading and I'm so glad I stumbled upon this one at the library. I'll definitely be looking out for her other books in the future.

[Michael McNally]

Lost this library book on a commute from Melbourne to Brisbane. The shame of it. Was very enjoyable to read too in small doses.