about
Kathryn Hamann's poetry has been widely published both in Australia and overseas. She lives in Melbourne with her family and three cats. The latter provide the distraction no writer can be without.Kathryn graduated from Monash University with a Bachelor of Science (Honours) degree and completed a Diploma of Education at Rusden (now Deakin University). She has worked in many fields both here and in the United States.
Kathryn uses a wide variety of forms and is willing to be innovative. Her prose poems are renowned for the wickedness of their humour. Her work is said have a prophetic quality but it is also profoundly touched by the mystics. Kathryn does not shirk from the dark, the painful, but there is also a grounded joy. This is a joy that does not come easily but one that is perhaps, the more precious and more enduring because of the cost.
She has released six books:
A Poor Canticle (ShardLight Publications)
The Threshold of Silence (ShardLight Publications)
saint moon (Sidewalk Books)
An Embrace of Morning (Poetica Christi Press)
Pelargoniums (Autism Victoria)
Arc of Promise (Kinetikon Publishing)
What Kathryn likes best is silence. The final poems in both saint moon and The Threshold of Silence had their birth in silent walks by the Yarra.What she hates best is writing bios!
NB: Kathryn Hamann has never published on poetry.com and is not to be confused with poet Katy Hamann (who sometimes signs herself as 'Kathryn Hamann').
Comments on Kathryn Hamann's work:
'Kathryn's poetry evokes the hidden yearnings of the spirit — daring to speak the language of the heart.' (Rev. Jenny Inglis)
'Kathryn Hamann uses well-written phrases and a sure touch to balance a picture of earthly clumsiness and limitation with an unseen but clear presence, a non-intrusive comforter.' (Joyce Lee)
'Here we find a genuine poet of the spirit, someone who is not afraid to stand in the light and offer her true feelings, thoughts and prayers to the world.' (Richard Hillman)
'A moral clarity… witty and innovative… intense and remarkable… imaginative and energetic… quiet, unrushed and meticulous… Hamann's work is full of power. Her language is powerful, her subject matter is powerful, but more than that the spirit powerfully pervades incidents taken from her life and other lives and makes them shine and glow upon the page.' (Patricia Prime, Stylus Poetry Journal)
Bios
Is composing a bio mete punishment for
the poet's unsolicited generosity?Do bios render visible the neural conduits
behind the pen? Is mystery writ plain?For those deluded enough to read a bio
what matter a little more delusion?Should the Names poets take in vain
be allowed to post their own reply?Would God go for the old line,
‘Of me, you have not said what is right!’Would any editor publish truth:
‘Actually, at about 2.30am, rather well seasoned,I found myself
ratting around in a language dumpster…’Can any poet declare their work free from
the shell of others’ words – present or past?Surely all poets (chosen as carefully as wine)
shed lines of glory upon those who sing,‘Do be our guest reader and
by the way — send a bio.’Could one size fit all? or should sheer
silence be the last and only word?
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