'In this poetry collection, Dodging the Relative, Hermina Burns considers the complex and tricky relationships we have with fathers, mothers, brother and sisters, step-relations and others. Her poems explore the ways in which relationships with the relative, close or distant, genealogically or in terms of the physical world, shape us even as we attempt to assert an individual and independent self. The poems contemplate the potential costs involved in our relationship with the relative. Drawing on a lifetime of memories and experience, the poems focus on moments in time revealing the interconnections. They pose important questions for us about the extent to which we can create a sense of 'self' separate from the role assigned by birth order, gender or family relationship. And what exactly does it mean that 'everyone is related always?' At the heart of this collection, her fourth, is a woman's relationship with the relative in genealogical and social terms, and with respect to the physical world.'
Source : publisher's blurb
