Elizabeth Smither The Year Of Adverbs

Description

Eight years after her last, prize-winning, collection, The Lark Quartet, this is a new book of poems from a major poet. The Year of Adverbs is full of the stuff of daily life, fizzing with personalities, alive with incidents and travelling from New Plymouth to Paris and back again. There is a wedding, a birth, several deaths and funerals as well as glimpses of Walter Ralegh, Fats Waller, Eliza Bennet, a car, a bicycle and a horse playing an accordion. Smither's eye for unexpected likenesses, her verbal playfulness, her distinctive wit and style are everywhere apparent. The book ends with a delightful sequence of 'little Parisian poems' revelling in small details of that city and finishing, 'Au revoir, bonne journee'. Publishing August 2007.  . . . one of the most rewarding New Zealand books of 2007. - Iain Sharp, Sunday Star-Times ÃÂÂÂÃÂÂÂÃÂÂÂÃÂÂÂÃÂÂÂÃÂÂÂÃÂÂÂÃÂÂÂÃÂÂÂÃÂÂÂÃÂÂÂÃÂÂÂÃÂÂÂÃÂÂÂÃÂÂÂ÷ The grace and elegance with which Smither writes demonstrate her honed technique. - Margaret Christensen, Wairarapa Times Age . Smither emerges from this collection as an uncommonly attractive poetic personality, by turns whimsical, piquant, learned, heartfelt and acute, with a quick eye for absurdities, but never supercilious or scathing, inclined on the contrary to join in the fun. - Iain Sharp, Sunday Star-Times · Oblique, amused, always probingly intelligent, Smither's muse is too wry, too self-aware, to demand disciples or to found a school. - Hugh Roberts, NZ Listener

Reviews

I feel confident ["The Year of Adverbs"] will be greeted with general applause as one of the poet's strongest and surest collections to date . . . I expect it to be a prizewinner." --Iain Sharp, author, "Real Gold

Author description

Taranaki writer Elizabeth Smither has written four novels, four books of short stories and 14 books of poetry. She has twice won the major award for New Zealand poetry and was the 2002 Te Mata Poet Laureate. She has held creative writing fellowships. She was made a Member of the NZ Order of Merit (MNZM; approximate to an MBE) and was awarded an honorary DLitt from The University of Auckland in for her contributions to literature.