All Things Considered

Today at All Things Considered, we continue a project we're calling NewsPoet. Each month, we bring in a poet to spend time in the newsroom — and at the end of the day, to compose a poem reflecting on the day's stories.

Transcript

ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:

Our book reviewer, Alan Cheuse, has been visiting the early days of British settlements in Australia. His means of transport is an award-winning novel called "That Dead Man Dance." It's by Australian writer Kim Scott.

ALAN CHEUSE, BYLINE: Cygnet River, the coast of southwestern Australia, early in the 19th century, first contact between the aboriginal Noongar people and the crew of settlers from England led by a well-meaning medical man named Dr. Cross. The Noongars are represented by young Bobby Wabalanginy.

Seth Grahame-Smith is the author of Unholy Night.

I know it's strange to be thinking about October right now, but whenever I write, in a way that's always where I am. Growing up in Connecticut, it always held a special place in my heart — "a rare month for boys," as Ray Bradbury begins Something Wicked This Way Comes.