Stacy Nicholson

Combining the intimate, compassionate view of human connection from her first collection (Stay With Me) with the transparent, self-reflective account of human struggle from her autobiography (Colour of My Heart), this collection is the ultimate tour de force of the human emotional landscape. Wherever you are in your life's journey of ups, downs, and nuances of the in-betweens, these poems connect everyone with one uniting, cathartic thread: none of us is going through it alone.

Colour of My Heart is a starkly honest, often harrowing account of the human spirit's struggle with and ultimate triumph over adversity. Set initially in rural Bosnia, formerly part of Tito's Socialist Republic of Yugoslavia, and later Australia. One of four children Stacy, the daughter of austere parents who worked the land. Village life among the farming community of Bosnia was very far from idyllic, but what peace did prevail there was shattered by the horrors and atrocities of the Bosnian War, which so tragically tore the family apart. After the war the family eventually settled as refugees from religious persecution in Australia where Stacy, by nature hardworking and diligent, started a family with her Bosnian husband, achieved professional success and for the first time found love, only for tragedy to strike again. Trapped in a loveless marriage and afflicted by ongoing family strife, Stacy succumbed to a crippling mental illness.