Kent's book launch

"From a Montana dimestore in his native North America to Phnom Penh into Victoria Street, Melbourne, MacCarter navigates the world, seeking not just the sounds, textures and tastes that characterise its parts, but the emotional sustenance that we all crave."

So sayeth the blurb on the back cover. Maybe so, but the book launch still smelt strongly of cheese. Littoral cheese, by the way; not metaphorical cheese. Kent's book, In the Hungry Middle of Here, was launched last night at Collected Works, with Kent giving a gentle reading of some of his poems.



I don't know whether people still want to buy dimes, or the shortest distance between Phnom Penh and Victoria Street (south at Port Moresby would be my guess), but Kent's poems have a warmth that I really admire.

Despite ten years conditioning for a small world in Canberra, I still wasn't expecting to see a few familiar faces. Jan was there, as was Helen R. Later, walking into Nudel Bar, we passed Vanessa, Janelle, Emily S and Rebecca... By the end of the night I might have bumped into Andre the Giant and been cool enough to say "what ho!", but everybody I met got the "Wha? Oh, hello!"