In 1985 a select number of Australian poets undertook a tour of the United States of America to test the waters. Would America be ready for the cutting edge of Australian poetics? Just how much bullshit could the USA take?
This is the story of what happened as the crisis of Australian poetics and politics was played out on the road. It is a story steeped in the politics of the cultural cringe. A story of adventure, voyeurism, innocence, full of pop culture, jazz dawns, emotional upheavals, drugs, and racist politics.
It’s rare that a poetry tour receives such cultural notoriety, achieving cult status. Now for the first time, the full story is revealed in all its detail.
Engaging, provocative, and hilariously funny — this is gonzo history with the dynamics of a travel story, done as poetry, presenting the flip side to Australia’s literary history.
