poetry

“In our current age of hype, platitudes, doublespeak, and attention spans limited to the length of a tweet, Jakob’s poems ask us to read more carefully, think more deeply, and to widen our understanding and appreciation of history, philosophy, theology and art.” – Luke Fischer

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Pitt Street Poetry 2013

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Pitt Street Poetry 2016
venetian mirrors
Angelico Press 2024

– book reviews –


Venetian mirrors

The sepia carousel

Chains of snow

Seldom does a debut collection come with so assured a voice, such technical accomplishment, and such expressive powers at its command. Chains of Snow is a remarkable introduction to the work of a fine new poet, a voice both rich and strange, with a frame of cultural reference as broad as history … Jakob Ziguras inhabits a place of constant philosophical probing, but always embodied in the things of this physical world, swarming in their net of sunlight. By turns troubling, haunting and exhilarating, these poems and their music are unforgettable – Stephen Edgar


Ziguras distinguishes himself as a poet whose verse not only exhibits remarkable craftsmanship, but also shines with a very real and often mysterious beauty. As a single unified work, this book clearly far surpasses in technical and aesthetic ambitions anything he has previously produced; but it is no great surprise that it succeeds so singularly well and leaves behind so lingering an effect. This is the work of a fine artist at the height of his powers. – David Bentley Hart (from foreword to Venetian Mirrors)

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book launch with zagajewski
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– SELECTED PUBLICATIONS AND PROJECTS –

  • Counterturn – podcast interview about Venetian Mirrors, 2024
  • Sanatorium, The Anabranch: Newcastle Poetry Prize Anthology 2022
  • Jet Lag Song Nets, Groundswell: The Overland Judith Wright Poetry Prize for New and Emerging Poets 2007–2020
  • Flying in to Rome, The Best Australian Poems 2015
  • Distant Orchards, Where I Am Not, Stone Courtyard and Derwent Street, Incroci di poesia contemporanea 2010– 2015
  • Roman Sonnets, Newcastle Poetry Prize Anthology 2015
  • Yiddish Songs and The Last Man in Pompeii, Long Glances: A Snapshot of New Australian Poetry from the 2013 Jean Cecily Drake-Brockman Poetry Prize
  • Plato, Meanjin 2012
  • Abendland, Coastline: Newcastle Poetry Prize Anthology 2012
  • The Last Man in Pompeii, The Wombat Vedas: Newcastle Poetry Prize Anthology 2011
Full list of publications
Selected Poems

Awards

2024 ACU Prize for Poetry (shortlisted)
2022 Newcastle Poetry Prize (commended)
2015 Overland Judith Wright Poetry Prize (3rd place)
2015 Newcastle Poetry Prize (2nd place)
2014 Prime Minister’s Literary Award, (shortlisted)
2013 David Harold Tribe Poetry Award (winner)
2012 Newcastle Poetry Prize (shortlisted)
2011 Newcastle Poetry Prize (shortlisted)
2011 Harri Jones Memorial Prize (winner)