Magabala acquires Liddle’s “gritty” poetry debut

Magabala has acquired world rights to the experimental poetry collection Damn Good Television by debut Jabirr Jabirr author and musician Loki Liddle.

Described as “gritty, bloodsoaked and unsentimental”, Liddle’s debut work “takes readers on a deranged road trip from Coolangatta to Broome,” said the publisher. “Along the way, he consumes and spits out western popular culture and connects to the voices of his Jabirr Jabirr ancestors, weaving past, present and fiction together in a surreal and unforgettable feature.”

Liddle, a proud Jabirr Jabirr poet and musician, is lead singer and songwriter of Gold Coast rock band Selve. He won the 2019 Nimbin Poetry Cup, has been published in Griffith Review, and has toured nationally and internationally, performing alongside artists including Kendrick Lamar, Doechii, Archie Roach, Electric Fields, Megan Washington and Matt Corby. He performed his latest album, Breaking Into Heaven, with a 33-piece orchestra as part of Bleach Festival. Damn Good Television, Liddle’s first published work, is the outcome of a six-month poetry residency through HOTA’s Artkeeper program.

Liddle said, “I am really excited and grateful that the incredible team at Magabala are taking on Damn Good Television with such kind hearts and helping me send it out into the world. My very first book could not possibly feel in better hands. I can’t wait for people to get lost in its weird and wacky channel-surfing heart of mysteries and laughs. I just hope it’s as fun to read as it was to write.”

Magabala publisher Rachel Bin Salleh said, “Liddle is the Quentin Tarantino of poetry. His debut collection is a visual homage to the expansive nature of cinema, and like Tarantino, Liddle sits outside the mainstream.” The publisher compared Damn Good Television to Dorothy Porter’s The Monkey’s Mask and William S Burroughs’s Naked Lunch.

Magabala plans to publish Damn Good Television in June 2026.

Category: Local news Rights and acquisitions