Anita Sullivan

The poems in Original Flamboyance start with a baseline assumption that flamboyance is a healthy response to well being. It occurs when strong feelings of delight or determination-in-adversity surge through the body of a living creature, who may begin to act out this set of feelings. It is usually a temporary condition, mildly comical, and offers a complex set of counter-balancing emotions when someone is in a position of trying to keep raw happiness from tumbling into chaos. In these highly original poems, birds, rats, squirrels, lions, horses, trees, spoons, waterfalls, wrecked cars, particle physics, scary dreams, and death itself all contain hidden reservoirs of flamboyance that humans might tap into if they would but recognize the codes that the poems supply. Even a single word can help you to discover-or intensify-your own original flamboyance as you break into an unauthorized giggle or mistake a bird's tummy for a map of the world.

21 offbeat horror tales, featuring award winners Keith Gray, Cliff McNish, Anita Sullivan, John Grey, Anthea Middleton, Mark Nutter and Jan-Andrew Henderson. Alongside them are a host of other writers whose stories deserve their moment in the shade. Meth dealing polar bear? Check. Serial killer versus shark? Of course. Giant love-struck erection? Yeah, we went there.

In this brilliant collection of short essays, author Anita Sullivan presents her observations on the topic of rhythm in poetry, pointing out that certain poems not only feed the brain through narrative and ideas but also nourish the body through rhythm. Sullivan is not talking here about rhyme, but rather an extended palette of rhythmic patterns that are latent in normal speech but often show up in poetry when a degree of emotional intensity is applied to the words. Merely being attentive to this possibility can enrich the experience of reading poetry far beyond what might be expected.

The short essays in this delightful collection by award-winning author Anita Sullivan gently cycle through three themes: the Natural world, Music, and Poetry. Enormous subjects, indeed, but each essay has been steeped in a base solution and labored over for decades in the author's own interior alchemical laboratory, bringing to the reader a satisfying sense of thematic unity and enduring insight. This lovely book offers a genuinely pleasing and indulgent reading experience.