information about search engine
My dream a drink with ted nielsen - another live one - whose poetry is not primarily a refuge from the present, though it looks at the future open-eyed and forewarned & worries that its insouciance may not be the best defence, saying What me worry? - I guess so.
Ken Bolton
my first book of poems, search engine, was published by Five Islands Press as part of their New Poets Series Six in mid-1999. not too shabby, eh?
the cover
the cover design was done by Ying-Shan Lu, using a collage that i built from some stock photos & various other bits & pieces. the image was built up in micrografx picture publisher using a range of different object blends & opacities... (useless cover factoid: buried deep beneath the noise generated by all the circuit diagrams, steam engines & the big purple cross-section of a human skull, is the reference desk of the library of alexandria...)
reviews
Judith Beveridge wrote in LiNQ 16.2 (1999):
Ted Nielsen's Search Engine is written with a cool, ironic yet vulnerable voice. It is this vulnerability which gives the work an authenticity, and which sets the emotional agenda for so many of the poems. It's a poetry of tease and wit, of style and voice; a poetry which takes its own self-consciousness to heart and sets it against the larger and more dominating forces of technology, commerce and market operatives. In this arena, self-doubt, uncertainty and a quizzical ambiguity become pivotal....
Nielsen's poetry seems to broach the important issues of what happens when a technology-centred, depersonalised world becomes the experiential source of our lives; how can poetry be resourced from such material?
Geoff Page wrote in The Canberra Times:
Very urban (we used to say "inner city"), Nielsen's work is, at this stage, a congenial mixture of John Forbes, John Tranter and Joanne Burns. He has the satiric eye of Burns, the zany humour of Forbes as well as Tranter's infatuation with technology. Like his mentors Nielsen is prepared to be self-deprecating and risk giving reviewers a petard to hoist him with.
Kerry Leves wrote in Overland 158:
The style may suggest a less flamboyant and less literate Ted Berrigan, grimmed-out for the nerdy nineties or the zero zeroes.... At worst, the hyper-articulate world-weariness (or world-wariness) may remind some readers of Sean Penn's knowing and stressed out monologist in the movie Hurlyburly -- but Nielsen's language has more cogency, some excitement, and made me want to re-read.
awards
search engine was commended in the 1999 Anne Elder Award. the judges (Jennifer Harrison and Philip Salom) thought:
ted nielsen's search engine is witty and very inventive and employs a likeable, low-key abstract wit combined with surreal insights.
purchasing
the RRP is A$8.00. if you have a good bookshop nearby, they should be able to order a copy for you. alternatively, you can purchase search engine from the following places:
don't forget to ask about postage and handling costs when you place your order.
bibliographic details
nielsen, ted. search engine. New Poets Series Six. Five Islands Press: Wollongong, 1999. (ISBN 0 86418 577 4)
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ted@magicdog.com -- 21 December 2000
