Family Instructions Upon Release

Paperback / softback

Main Details

Title Family Instructions Upon Release
Authors and Contributors      By (author) Elizabeth Kirkby-McLeod
Physical Properties
Format:Paperback / softback
Pages:75
Dimensions(mm): Height 210,Width 148
Category/GenrePoetry by individual poets
Coping with death and bereavement
ISBN/Barcode 9781988595054
ClassificationsDewey:NZ821.3
Audience
General

Publishing Details

Publisher The Cuba Press
Imprint The Cuba Press
Publication Date 1 November 2019
Publication Country New Zealand

Description

'I have no words.' This is so often our response to grief and loss, when dealing with it ourselves or consoling others. Elizabeth's father took his own life in 2012. Unable to find words of her own to write about what had happened, Elizabeth took them instead from the 2006 Penguin Classics edition of 'Twelve Angry Men', a play she and her father attended together when Elizabeth was a teenager, and combined these with the New Zealand Government's `Fact Sheet 4 - Suicide and Self-Harm'. Armed with this limited dictionary, she was able to write poems that are by turns mournful, angry and searching. The cumulative effect is surprising in its narrative drive and cathartic power.