Brentley Frazer

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Brentley Frazer (1972 - ) is an Australian born poet/writer. His poems, short stories and other writings have been published in Australia, New Zealand, the United States, Canada, U.K, France, Japan and India. He has been published in some of the most reputable magazines, literary journals, anthologies and periodicals, including, The Age, Exquisite Corpse Journal of Letters, Jack Magazine, 3:AM Magazine, Rattapallax Magazine, Short Fuse and Moosehead Anthology X.

Brentley Frazer's coherent theories of sociolinguistics distinguish him among contemporary poets, as they are based on his wide readings of contemporary philosophy and literature. His first book A Dark Samadhi - poems + microtexts was published in 2003 to critical acclaim. In a review of A Dark Samadhi The Courier Mail [The Courier Mail Brisbane Australia 12 Sep 2003 by Hannah Brooks] wrote "despite his formidable overseas reputation, Brentley is relatively unknown in his hometown of Brisbane. But as a poet and founding editor of online literary and art journal Retort Magazine, Frazer has gained an international reputation as one of the most innovative of contemporary writers." In 2001 Brentley founded the cult internet publication 'Retort Magazine'. In 2003 the Columbia Journalism Review and The Guardian UK placed Retort Magazine in their top 10 web based publications of its kind. [1] [2] Frazer has been publisher and editor of Retort Magazine since 2001 (http://www.retortmagazine.com)and his magazine has created quite an uproar in his native Australia and is read by readers of all walks of life in over 70 countries worldwide. If Frazer is not recognized as a genius in his own country, he is certainly known to be on the cutting edge of post-modern art with his "innate and uncanny observational skills that distinguish his work from the ordinary and allow him to paint...with brush or word or sound...a unique and altered yet truthful perspective of the world...everything indeed appears as nothing more than our individual perception of it...for the most part reality as we know it is a mass hallucination…which probably explains how televisions work..." (Star Jewel Smith, former associate editor of Get Underground.com).

In 2004 Brentley relocated from Queensland to the city of Melbourne. In July 2007 Brentley published a new collection of poems and 'microtexts' Memories Like Angels at a Ball Tripping over Their Gowns. In August 2007 Dazed&Confused magazine (Dazed&Confused Australia/New Zealand VOL1#5 pge119 Brentley Frazer:Deeper Underground by Adam Pettet] wrote "through his last 3 collections Frazer has maintained a steady attack upon the politico-economic social hierarchy, while still managing to touch at the heart of modern dislocation' and 'Brentley Frazer may have won critical acclaim in respected literary journals around the world but Australia has never been quite sure of what to do with this Melbourne based Poet who comes across like a 21st century Baudelaire on acid'.

[edit] Books

  • Opera of Destruction, Homunculus Publications (Australia, 1991)*out of print
  • Oneirodynia, laTorre Press (Australia, 1993)*out of print
  • Blood Psalms, Sabazeos Books (Australia, 1995)*out of print
  • Fugue, Sabazeos Books (Australia, 1996)*out of print
  • A Dark Samadhi, PCPress (Australia, New Zealand, 2003)*available
  • A Dark Samadhi(2nd edition), Black Star Books (Global 2007)*available
  • Memories like Angels at a ball tripping over their gowns, Retort Books (Global, 2007)*available

[edit] Criticism

  • "...as a poet and founding editor of online literary and art journal Retort Magazine, Frazer has gained an international reputation as one of the most innovative of contemporary writers." The Courier Mail Brisbane Australia 12 Sep 2003 by Hannah Brooks
  • "...in A Dark Samadhi he is revealed as one of the greatest writing talents of our time." Prat Magazine February 2003 Issue 1 pp 12-15
  • “Brentley Frazer is a radical poet, excitingly angry, playful–A Dark Samadhi is one of the best books of the 21st century, it is extraordinary–he’s one of Australia’s best...”–Todd Swift, London 2009
  • "...Brentley Frazer (is) a 21st Century Baudelaire on acid."–Dazed & Confused Magazine
  • "...a true underground poetic visionary."– Identity Theory
  • "A universal “I” rages throughout this text; a disturbed, triumphant, paranoid, self-proclaimed inheritor of our neural system meltdowns, that unleashes multi-tonal diseases to ravage the ‘lyric’ carcass. This is anti-lyric (anti-high aesthetic, capital “P”) poetry at its very best; the signification of human experience is rarely epiphanous, reality is almost always discordant, a come down of intellectual and emotive grief..." Brett Dionysius (Director, Queensland Poetry Festival)
  • "Brentley has precise nightmares in prose! We fear them."–Exquisite Corpse Journal of Letters
  • "...It is important stuff, this. For too long there was only speak or listen, noise or silence, but in this new epoch there are no barricades, no front lines, no sparring. All is stealth and subterfuge, the visceral made manifest where poets laugh and cry over the same tiny word. Anyone who wants to know who fired off those flares on the pitted horizon should buy these books. Like the times they’re razor wire sharp and wild and ancient as the last lie uttered with a smile" Justin Lowe, Cordite Magazine
  • "Clever. Ethereal. Medical. Evil. Brilliant. Beautiful. Grimy. Pornographic. Low-brow Art. High Porno. Vaginal. Manifesto. Poem. Talk to me…Mr. Frazer is a poetic, naive, scared, remarkable, spartan Writer with a gift for description, a style similar to Clive Barker and more than a passing similarity to William S. Burroughs’ inculcation (,i.e.: “but strange clear suckers filled with black blood and decorated wings like paisley, vast wings sought after religiously by taxidermists…”), and Charles Bukowski( See: Entire oeuvre)…and that ain’t bad. Looking forward to reading more from this strange, erudite, neo-literate oddball." Bob Freville (Staff Writer GetUnderground.com USA)

[edit] External links

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