From first glance, the layered artistry of this poetry collection by NYU Fulbright Scholar and QUT Professor Holland-Batt begins to open to (and in) us. A lithe wild animal bares its teeth arrestingly on the paperback’s cover. Mindful of proverbial caution, we leaf through a poem or two before we commit to buying. Each crafted verse bites deeper, amplifying the realisation that the cover image is a potent symbol for what lies within, ‘miraculous and sleek’. The poet powerfully disproves her own protest that she ‘can’t make anything of it.’ Quite the opposite: what Holland Batt has crafted from her acute personal observations is an elegant yet unrelenting body of worth, entirely deserving of its laurels as The Australian’s Book of the Year 2022.
Share your thoughts: We all go through life experiences that wound us. In what way have you transformed such an experience into something positive?
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