image of person or book cover 3007099469499873034.jpg
Image courtesy of publisher's website.
y separately published work icon Bees Do Bother selected work   poetry  
Alternative title: Bees Do Bother : An Antagonist's Carepack
Issue Details: First known date: 2021... 2021 Bees Do Bother
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'Bees Do Bother: An Antagonist's Carepack takes its cue from Leonardo da Vinci’s observation that the bee does not simply collect and use but digests and transforms. It considers firstly, how our understanding of social interactions might borrow from those of the more-thanhuman and secondly, that we need to reconceptualise existence as closely connected to the more-than-human. As Maurice Maeterlinck noted as far back as 1901, “If the bee disappeared off the face of the earth, man would only have four years left to live.” As its title suggests, the collection plays upon the dual meaning of bothering as an act of care as much as an act of disturbance. The central question driving Bees Do Bother is: how might we creatively draw together these strands of care and activism? Taking a specifically feminist approach, the poetry collection considers how experiences of intimacy and labour have been shaped by cultural hierarchies and divisions around gender, race, capital, and nation. It explores how poetry might highlight existing social and ecological vulnerability and unsettle prescribed roles. In imaginatively teasing out and beginning the work of transforming relations, how might poetry lead to more sustainable forms of belonging and solidarity?' (Publication summary)

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

    • Newtown, Marrickville - Camperdown area, Sydney Southern Suburbs, Sydney, New South Wales,: Vagabond Press , 2021 .
      image of person or book cover 3007099469499873034.jpg
      Image courtesy of publisher's website.
      Extent: 80p.
      Note/s:
      • Published July 2021
      ISBN: 9781925735260

Works about this Work

Thick Pickings Michael Farrell , 2023 single work review
— Appears in: Sydney Review of Books , May 2023;

— Review of Bees Do Bother Ann Vickery , 2021 selected work poetry

'The title of Ann Vickery’s latest book of poems, Bees Do Bother: An Antagonist’s Care Pack, is longer, more complex, and more avowedly academic than is conventional. A number of questions might be asked of it: are the bees metaphorical, being the most basic. In other words, are the bees human? That what ‘bees do [is] bother’ does not clarify, but rather thickens, the meaning of the first part of the title. Bothering seems like a human activity, and suggests, both semantically and sonically, the notion of a ‘bee in a bonnet’ (‘Bad Hat’): but while having a bee in your bonnet is not a passive image exactly, it does suggest being subject to the bee, of the bothering being done to the one with the bonnet, as opposed to being the bee that is doing the bothering.'(Introduction)   

Alexis Late Reviews Bees Do Bother : An Antagonist’s Care Pack by Ann Vickery Alexis Late , 2022 single work review
— Appears in: Cordite Poetry Review , 15 September no. 106 2022;

— Review of Bees Do Bother Ann Vickery , 2021 selected work poetry
No Time Limits : Three New Poetry Collections Anders Villani , 2021 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , November no. 437 2021; (p. 58-59)

— Review of How to Make a Basket Jazz Money , 2021 selected work poetry ; Bees Do Bother Ann Vickery , 2021 selected work poetry ; The Open Lucy Van , 2021 selected work poetry

'Good poetry uncovers the secret in the manifest, and the manifest in the secret. Three new collections throw this paradox into vibrant, unsettling relief. Each book deserves a broad readership. Each beats back the lethargic thinking that has invaded society under the cover of the pandemic.' (Introduction)

No Time Limits : Three New Poetry Collections Anders Villani , 2021 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , November no. 437 2021; (p. 58-59)

— Review of How to Make a Basket Jazz Money , 2021 selected work poetry ; Bees Do Bother Ann Vickery , 2021 selected work poetry ; The Open Lucy Van , 2021 selected work poetry

'Good poetry uncovers the secret in the manifest, and the manifest in the secret. Three new collections throw this paradox into vibrant, unsettling relief. Each book deserves a broad readership. Each beats back the lethargic thinking that has invaded society under the cover of the pandemic.' (Introduction)

Alexis Late Reviews Bees Do Bother : An Antagonist’s Care Pack by Ann Vickery Alexis Late , 2022 single work review
— Appears in: Cordite Poetry Review , 15 September no. 106 2022;

— Review of Bees Do Bother Ann Vickery , 2021 selected work poetry
Thick Pickings Michael Farrell , 2023 single work review
— Appears in: Sydney Review of Books , May 2023;

— Review of Bees Do Bother Ann Vickery , 2021 selected work poetry

'The title of Ann Vickery’s latest book of poems, Bees Do Bother: An Antagonist’s Care Pack, is longer, more complex, and more avowedly academic than is conventional. A number of questions might be asked of it: are the bees metaphorical, being the most basic. In other words, are the bees human? That what ‘bees do [is] bother’ does not clarify, but rather thickens, the meaning of the first part of the title. Bothering seems like a human activity, and suggests, both semantically and sonically, the notion of a ‘bee in a bonnet’ (‘Bad Hat’): but while having a bee in your bonnet is not a passive image exactly, it does suggest being subject to the bee, of the bothering being done to the one with the bonnet, as opposed to being the bee that is doing the bothering.'(Introduction)   

Last amended 4 Jun 2021 12:24:59
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