Yann Toussaint
Author and sustainability educator
The Tercel Bird
The Tercel Bird, my debut collection of poems reflecting on nature, relationships and place, published by Hallowell Press in 2016
The Tercel Bird reviewed by Writing WA:
‘These poems happen in their own sweet time. The lineation is assured, with a great attentiveness to sound moving through lines; take for example the effect of ‘Flying slowly in dissolute flocks’. Although slim, The Tercel Bird contains universes, along with sensitivity to deep time. Its deft coordinates track between Albany, Morocco, a walk along the Thames. In it one finds a world of candles rather than chandeliers, a blessed slow moving world in which there is time to watch a young kestrel learning to fly. The reading experience is utterly enhanced by the fine press practices of Hallowell Press.’
Publications
Book:
2016 The Tercel Bird (poetry collection) Denmark: Hallowell Press
Other Creative Works:
1996 Drought (Short Story), Westerly 41( 3):64-65
1997 City Farm (creative non-fiction), Soup 1997 (Issue 3) p. 42-43
2000 Text (Short Story), Processed (Issue 1) p. 62-63
2001 From an ornithologist to his lexicographer friend, Western Word 24(1):11
2002 Mulcock, J. & Toussaint, Y. Memories and idylls: urban reflections on lost places and inner landscapes, Transformations 2
2005 Tilbury F, Toussaint Y, and Davis, A. Drawing on Turner: Liminal engagements between artists, advocates and refugees in regional Western Australia. Transformations 11.
2005 The Great Southern – A Biodiversity hotspot (Catalogue Essay) pp 4-5 In Davis, A. and du Bignon, S. (eds) Hotspot: Contemporary Art from the Great Southern, Western Australia Mix Artists Incorporated: Albany
2011 Watching a Young Kestrel Learning to Fly Westerly 56(1): 154-155
2011 Afternoon Tea With the Gibraltarian Ornithological Society LiNQ 38: 42
2012 Fingerbone of a whale (p 58-59) in Graham Kershaw (ed) Dark Diamonds: poems from the south coast of western australia, Denmark: Hallowell Press
2012 Persimmon (p. 60) in Graham Kershaw (ed) Dark Diamonds: poems from the south coast of western australia, Denmark: Hallowell Press
2013 To An Old Teacher Westerly , June vol. 58 no. 1 2013; (p. 36-37)
2013 That Sort of Poem Australian Love Poems 2013 Inkerman and Blunt
2014 Notes from the Thames Path Westerly , 59 (1)(p. 183-184)
2020 Whisky and Rumours and Kissing Gourami in Once, Nightparrot Press
Commissions and Collaborations:
2015 The Pavement Poetry Project – to coordinate and deliver a project commissioned by the City of Albany to engage the community with poems and poetry workshops in the Albany Town Square
2016 Bridges and Boundaries – Performances at the Denmark Festival of voice
2017 Creatures of the deep, Commission and recording for Vancouver Arts Centre
2018 The old trees of Albany, (original recorded poetry commissioned for If trees could speak, an exhibition at the Vancouver Arts Centre, Albany, May, 2018)
2019 Recordings with Audionarcissist
2020 Persephone in the Afterlife (a cycle of nine poems commissioned to accompany artist Tess Bryant’s exhibition Afterlife, Vancouver Arts Centre, January, 2020)
BIO
Yann Toussaint is an author, anthropologist and sustainability educator who lives on the South Coast of Western Australia. Over the years he has worked with threatened species in Mauritius, France and Australia, worked on Native Title claims, run a bush regeneration nursery and community garden, volunteered on organic farms across Europe and, inspired by reading Tintin in Tibet at a tender age, lived in a monastery in the Himalayas.
He has been interested in writing for as long as he can remember