In Tracy Ryan’s poems there are no safe houses, the walls of domesticity keep falling in and she is the clear-eyed tightrope walker negotiating a perilous foothold. Her lines zigzag across the page:
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Dorothy Hewett
Dorothy Hewett (1923–2002) was an Australian poet, novelist, and playwright. She produced three novels – Bobbin Up (1959), Neap Tide (1999), and The Toucher (1993) – twelve poetry collections, thirteen plays, and the first volume of her autobiography, Wild Card (1990). Hewett’s writing was strongly informed by her experiences in working-class Perth and Sydney. A long-term supporter of the Communist party, Hewett often challenged the sexual, religious, and political norms of her time.
The Hanging of Jean Lee is the third verse novel I have reviewed recently, except that this one is closer to the verse documentary.
As one might expect, it is a grim, tough story of the deterioration of a young woman’s life and its brutal end. It is divided into four sections with deliberately cold-hearted titles, Personal Pages, Entertainment Section, Crime Supplement and Death Notices. The Ha ... (read more)
This Version of Love
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