Jaguar

Sarah Holland-Batt is an award-winning Australian poet, editor and critic. Born in Southport, Queensland in 1982, she grew up in Australia and the United States, and has also lived in Italy and Japan. She holds a first-class Honours degree in Literature, an MPhil and a PhD from the University of Queensland, and an MFA in Poetry from New York University, where she was the W.G. Walker Memorial Fulbright Scholar from 2010-2011. She has received fellowships from Yaddo and MacDowell, an Asialink Literature Residency, a Chateau de Lavigny Fellowship, a Hawthornden Fellowship, a Sidney Myer Creative Fellowship, and the Australia Council Literature Residency at the B.R. Whiting Studio in Rome, among other honours. After several years as a Professor at Queensland University of Technology (QUT) in Brisbane, she is now Professor and Head of Creative Writing at University of Technology Sydney (UTS).Her first book, Aria, was the recipient of several literary prizes, including the Anne Elder Award, the Arts ACT Judith Wright Prize and the Thomas Shapcott Prize, was shortlisted in both the New South Wales and Queensland Premiers' Literary Awards, and was commended for The Age's Poetry Book of the Year. Her second book, The Hazards, won the 2016 Prime Minister's Literary Award for Poetry, and was shortlisted for the New South Wales Premier's Kenneth Slessor Prize, the Western Australian Premier's Book Awards, the Queensland Literary Awards Judith Wright Calanthe Prize, and the John Bray Memorial Poetry Award. Her third book, The Jaguar, won the 2023 Stella Prize and the Queensland Premier’s Award for State Significance, and was named The Australian newspaper’s 2022 Book of the Year. The Jaguar was also longlisted for the Griffin Poetry Prize and the ALS Gold Medal, and shortlisted for the Kenneth Slessor Prize.Her UK retrospective, The Jaguar: Selected Poems, is due from Bloodaxe in September 2024. She will be in the UK to give readings from the book in autumn 2024, supported by a travel grant from Australia Council for the Arts.

Weaving themes of loss, memory, and transformation, Holland-Batt stuns in this powerful volume that draws from her previous collections. [...] Throughout, the natural world—urban or wild—gives voice to internal reckonings.

• from ARIA (2008)I19 Pocket Mirror20 Shore Acres21 Francesca in the Second Circle22 Ruined Estates23 The Woodpile25 Cavendish Road26 Rock Roses27 Atonement28 Tracery29 January: An Air31 Late Aspect32 Circles and Centres34 Meditation on the Plums I35 ElégieII36 Misery and Pizzicato37 Letter to Robert Lowell39 Exhaustion40 Two Kinds of Stubbornness41 The Sewing Room42 Mythos43 Materials44 Athenian Jar45 The Crow46 Un bel dì, vedremo48 Not a Life, But Like OneIII49 Remedios the Beauty51 Stormclouds over Mexico52 Letter from K53 Laughter and Forgetting54 Aria for a Painted Dancer56 The Idea of Mountain57 A Good Marriage58 The Fires60 Salem Song61 The Art of Disappearing63 Notesfrom THE HAZARDS (2015)I69 Medusa70 This Landscape Before Me72 The Orchid House74 Tropic Rain75 Botany76 A Scrap of Lace78 An Illustrated History of Settlement80 The House on Stilts82 Galah’s Skull83 Desert Pea84 Approaching ParadiseII86 The Vulture88 Essay on the Toucan89 The Capuchin91 The Macaw93 Life Cycle of the Eel94 Orange-bellied Parrot96 Green Ant Tarantella97 Three Sketches of a Favourite Cat98 Possum99 A Crab TideIII100 Of Germany101 Late Hammershøi103 Collioure/Love Poem104 Beauty Is a Ticket of Admission to All Spectacles105 Primavera: The Graces106 The Quattrocento as a Waltz107 Interbellum109 Rain, Ravello110 Embouchure112 Against Ingres114 Liebesträume115 Umbrian Sketch116 Reclining Nude118 Goya’s Dog119 The Flowers on His Bedside Speak of Eternity120 No End to ImagesIV121 Insurgency122 Night Sonnet123 Impressions of April124 Morningside Spring125 Mercado126 Garden Apartment, Taube127 Via dell’Amore128 The Atlantic130 O California131 The Invention of Ether133 Last Goodbyes in Havana134 Ensign135 The Hazards137 Notesfrom THE JAGUAR (2022)I143 My Father as a Giant Koi144 The Gift146 The Parachute147 Brazil148 Empires of Mind150 The Gurney152 Time Remaining154 Lime Jelly156 The Kindest Thing157 Terminal Lucidity158 Nessun Dorma160 The Outing162 The Clearing164 At SpringbrookII166 Thalassography168 Light Years170 Pikes Peak172 Substantia Nigra173 The Midpoint175 Tijuana177 Kneeling Figure179 The Jaguar181 The Odds182 The Grip184 Neurostimulator186 The Night Shift188 Maidenhair190 Vital SignsIII192 Instructions for a Lover193 Epithalamium195 Classical Allegory196 Affidavit197 Parable of the Clubhouse198 Cipriani200 On Tiepolo’s Cleopatra201 Ode to Cartier203 Alaska205 The Proposal207 The Worst of It208 Blue Quandong210 Serious MoonlightIV212 Driving Through Drystone Country214 Gin & Tonic at the Rock Hotel215 Lago Nicaraguense216 Quetzalcoatl218 Sketches from the Nile220 Meditation on Risk in New Hampshire222 Upon Viewing a Still Life by Chardin and Thinking of the Marathon Bombing in Boston224 Monopoli225 On Worthing Beach228 Great North Road231 Mediterranean Steps233 In My Father’s Country233 I The Burr234 II Your Dying236 III The Hex237 IV Long Division238 V Antipodes239 VI Anti-Gravity240 VII A Brief History of the British Raj241 VIII Brain Surgery242 IX The Tremor243 X Indirect Address244 XI Winter, Worthing247 Notes251 Thanks255 Biographical note