My Iron Spine

Author(s): Helen Rickerby

NZ Poetry

Empress Elisabeth's iron spine was her corset, tightly laced, constricting her but giving her backbone. Reclusive poet Emily Dickinson found caged comfort in her room. Ada Byron's mother tried corseting her with numbers, to counteract the madness she may have inherited from her father. Other characters in the poems of Helen Rickerby's new collection My Iron Spine, including the poet herself, find 'iron spines' in family, love, society, isolation, religion, knowledge and radiation. The first section weaves an autobiographical narrative, while the second exquisitely brings to life the stories and voices of women from history. The two combine in the final section, where the poet sunbathes with Joan of Arc, goes swimming with Virginia Woolf and parties with Katherine Mansfield.

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Product Information

Helen Rickerby's first collection, Abstract Internal Furniture (HeadworX 2001), was described as 'an avant-garde, indoor garden full of strange images and intriguing ideas where things turn topsy-turvy' (Harvey McQueen, New Zealand Books). She was co-founder, and now co-managing editor, of JAAM magazine, and runs the small publishing company Seraph Press. She lives in Wellington, where she is employed as an editor.

General Fields

  • : 9780473135966
  • : HeadworX
  • : HeadworX
  • : 180mm X 138mm
  • : New Zealand
  • : books

Special Fields

  • : Helen Rickerby
  • : Paperback
  • : 1st Edition
  • : 821.3
  • : Very Good
  • : 80