Vandemonian

Vandemonian is a poetic history of Tasmania, once known as Van Diemen's Land. Written in many different voices, its poems trace the island's earliest years under European settlement and examine what colonisation actually involved.

Cliff Forshaw mixes documented events, invented scenes and present-day reflection, drawing on religion, the island's landscape and all that remains unknown about it. The result is a sweeping, emotionally charged portrait of discovery, the loss of rights and the extinction of a people and wildlife.

Forshaw teaches at Hull University. He is a former winner of the Welsh Academi John Tripp Award and was named Blue Nose Poet of the Year. His pamphlet Wake was a joint winner of the Flarestack Pamphlet Competition in 2009. His more recent chapbook, Tiger (Happenstance, 2011), on the Tasmanian tiger, grew out of his time as International Writer-in-Residence in Hobart.