Two haiku books by Rob Scott, ‘Out of Nowhere’ and ‘Down to the Wire’, were launched most successfully on the evening of Friday 16th December at The Grumpy Swimmer Bookshop in Elwood, Melbourne. (Details follow, below.)
Rob Scott is a Melbournian who has lived and worked in Tokyo (where he first began writing haiku), the Netherlands and Stockholm, where he now resides with his wife Monica and their daughter. He has haiku in The First Australian Haiku Anthology, produced by John Bird and Janice M. Bostok, and the subsequent, 2nd and 3rd, anthologies, as well as being published worldwide. Rob has participated in Melbourne poetry events such as the Overload Festival and his haiku featured in the ‘Haiku on Melbourne Trains’ project initiated by Lia Hills. In 2015 he gave a presentation, ‘World Haiku from an Australian Viewpoint’ at The Second International Haiku Conference in Krakow, Poland. His Master’s thesis, ‘The History of Australian Haiku and the Emergence of Local Accent’ (2014) is archived at The Haiku Foundation and an extract, ‘Australian Haiku in the Global Context’, is featured in the December 2014 issue of ‘A Hundred Gourds’:
http://ahundredgourds.com/ahg41/index_feature.html
The long but narrow bookshop was packed with Rob’s friends, associates and fellow football aficionados. Rob’s wife, Monica, graciously made sure everyone had a cold drink as we listened to the two launch speakers, poet Myron Lysenko and Peter Flynn, who writes for ‘The Footy Almanac’ and to Rob’s reading of some of his haiku. The event, held on a balmy evening, was full of sea breeze, humour and good cheer.
Photo: Rob Scott at the Grumpy Swimmer Bookshop
Both books can be ordered from Red Moon Press: http://www.redmoonpress.com/?osCsid=15d06b41caa668625e2da65f951303a2
Extracts from the cover notes:
Out Of Nowhere
“True to its title, Rob Scott’s ‘Out of Nowhere’ deals with those moments in our seemingly mundane, daily lives that we didn’t see coming.”
– Lorin Ford
“With humour bleaker than a Swedish snowstorm and dryer than the ‘Dead Heart’ of the Australian desert . . .”
– Matt Hetherington
Down to the Wire
“Rob Scott knows what it is to love footy . . . and to keep it all in perspective.”
—John Harms
“Scott has done for Australian Rules football what Cor van den Heuvel did for American baseball.”
– Myron Lysenko
A few copies of each book are stocked at The Grumpy Swimmer Bookshop at 110 Ormond Rd, Elwood. ‘Out of Nowhere’ almost sold out (only 6 copies left) so Rob has advised Jim to expect a reprint order. Rob can be contacted via email at haikubobs at yahoo.com for further information.
— Lorin Ford, Melbourne, December 2016
Australian Haiku Society 