Wildlife of Berlin

'Neilsen’s intelligent, searching, and relentlessly contemporary poems in Wildlife of Berlin reveal a poet whose chief interest is transforming and challenging the way we see our human position in a world under ecological and ideological threat. At once philosophical and conversational, deadly serious and unerringly wry, these poems offer us forensically clear-eyed perspectives on subjects ranging from environmental degradation and the impending collapse of fragile ecosystems in the anthropocene, to unconventional and irreverent portraits of figures drawn from literature and politics and beyond. Neilsen’s poems are miraculously both deeply ethical and deeply comic; they surprise and delight with the irreverence of their critiques, while always keeping an eye on the tragic consequences of human folly. Above all, they ask us to sit still, to pay attention, to re-examine our basic precepts with equal measures of reason, wit, imagination and empathy. Wildlife of Berlin is a superbly crafted, incisive and urgent collection of new work from one of Australia’s most original poets, and deserving of the wide audience I am sure it will find. These are necessary poems for incendiary times.' – Sarah Holland-Batt

'This is a book full of loss and hopes for redemption, of elegy synched with epiphany and possibility – for loved ones and for the planet. Neilsen is a senior poet who has complete control over his material but the material surprises him as well. A brilliant book. A standout.' – John Kinsella

About the Author

Philip Neilsen is a poet, author and editor who has published sixteen books. Wildlife of Berlin is his sixth collection of poetry. He teaches poetry & poetics at the University of Queensland and is adjunct professor of creative writing at QUT.

His creative books have been translated into various languages including Chinese, German and Korean. His poetry has been included in prestigious anthologies such as: The Making of a Sonnet: A Norton Anthology (New York); The Penguin Anthology of Australian Poetry; Australian Poetry Since 1788 (University of NSW Press) and The Turnrow Anthology of Contemporary Australian Poetry – the first US anthology of Australian poetry.

With the UK poet David Morley he co-edited The Cambridge Companion to Creative Writing (2012). He is lead editor, with Professor Robert King and Professor Felicity Baker, of a scholarly book on creative arts in recovery from severe mental illness – Creative Arts in Counselling and Mental Health (SAGE: 2015). He has edited anthologies of Australian satirical verse for Penguin and UQP and been a member of the Literature Board. His awards include an Australian Notable Book Award and a Writers Fellowship from the Australia Council.