Here you will find reviews and other material about Pete’s work.
Physick
Shortlisted for the Tasmanian Book Prize 2017.
“Physick sears and coaxes. No one else takes the temperature of this island like Hay, and no one else uses Tasmania as such an effective prism through which to consider human nature. Physick’s transcendent poetry helps us understand not only place but the vagaries and passions of the human condition.” – Rachel Edwards, The Mercury, Weekend. (Read a version of this review here.)
“Physick is the most important book on Tasmania that I’ve read… a Pete Hay masterpiece wrung from life that points to a place beyond words.” Dr James Boyce, at the launch of Physick. See James’ speech in full, below. Print version: here.
A reflection on Physick by Martin Flanagan, The Age, 7th October 2016.
Video
A remarkable tribute to Pete, followed by an introduction to Physick, by Dr James Boyce, at the book’s launch, Hobart Bookshop, 18th August 2016.
Last Days of the Mill
Tasmanian Book Prize People’s Choice Award for Best Book with Tasmanian Content in Any Genre, 2013.
“In 2010 the paper pulp mill in the North-western Tasmanian town of Burnie closed down, Hay interviewed some of the workers… [and] created ten monologues, each in a characteristic voice, employing the speech patterns and vernacular of his interviewees. Some stories are touch and uncompromising, others surprisingly fragile and vulnerable. The results are stunning, a complex mixture of oral history and poetic resonance.“ – Ian Gibbins.
Silently on the Tide
Voted one of Tasmania’s 15 favourite books, and the only book of poetry to make that list.
“I first came across Pete Hay’s poetry back in 1996… and am struck afresh by his talent and empathy for the things that matter each time I renew the acquaintance. In a world of dwindling horizons, his is a voice we cannot afford to ignore.“ – Margaret Bradstock. Read Margaret’s review in full on Walleah Press website.
“Reader beware! This is a volume well worth reading but the experience is visceral, not for the faint-hearted. And there is a risk that you too could end up haunted.“ – Irene Novaczek
Vandemonian Essays
“That these essays are inevitably, passionately of this world of Tasmania, is not to allow the criticism of parochial sensibility, for they are fiercely connected with the most recent international trends in thought and writing… All are written without fear, with an erudition lightly worn, and with a pen dipped in a large love of this world… If there is an image I would wish to leave you with of Pete Hay, I think it is of a man turning graveyards into flowerbeds.” – Richard Flanagan (2014 Man Booker prize recipient.)
Interviews and more
- Island to island: an interview with Pete Hay, Laurie Brinklow, Published in Famous Reporter 43, March 2012.
- Attachment to Place – Lyn Reeves, Fortyspot, March 21, 2012.
- A Place on Earth: Nature writing in Australia – Charlotte Wood (An edited version of this article appeared in Good Reading magazine, 2004).
- A conversation with Pete and Anna Hay, Ralph Wessman, Recorded April 2003 in Hobart, published in Famous Reporter 28, December 2003.