Books by Laurie Duggan

"Sceptical as I am about anti-poetry, of which there is a lot around and which can assume many different forms, the fully formed poems are not the only writing I can value in a book like this. There is too much wit, absurdity, and sheer verbal craft to be ignored." -Peter Riley

"Duggan's is a poetry that determines to surprise: almost daring a reader to exclaim: you wrote like this about that?" -Alan Wearne, Sydney Morning Herald

"Sceptical as I am about anti-poetry, of which there is a lot around and which can assume many different forms, the fully formed poems are not the only writing I can value in a book like this. There is too much wit, absurdity, and sheer verbal craft to be ignored." - Peter Riley

The Pursuit of Happiness collects shorter poems written during and after the composition of Crab & Winkle, and concludes with 'The Nathan Papers', an earlier and longer work written in Australia. The poems address the state of the art and the state of the nation, investigating the spaces left for pleasure in this new dark age.

Centres specifically on the area of East Kent where Australian poet Laurie Duggan lives. It features excursions and interludes elsewhere in Britain, the Continent and North Africa.

"The Ash Range", originally published in Sydney in 1987, is a long work that mixes prose, poetry, reportage and illustrations - somewhat in the manner of William Carlos Williams' "Paterson" - to narrate a history of Gippsland, an area of south Victoria State.