Instructions for the Lovers – Dawn Lundy Martin
In this summer of institutionally sanctioned murder, the poet wakes each morning to “a fireheart grief” and drinks her coffee “into the griefmouth.”
All the Way to Summer – Fiona Kidman
Particularly in those stories set in dismal small towns or isolated rural plots in mid-twentieth century Aotearoa (New Zealand), [Kidman’s] women long for escape: for a bigger, more liberated elsewhere.
The writing has nothing to hide behind. That alone can make a reader nervous. What’s even more nerve-rending is the prospect of living inside an artistic experiment when its creator has warned you there’s no trapdoor.