'Memory Book: Portraits of Older Australians in Poetry and Watercolours shares and celebrates the fascinating life stories of everyday Australians.
'Based on one-on-one interviews with forty-five participants, the fifteen poets involved in this project have shaped poems that provide unique and lasting remembrances of the experiences, memories and reflections of members of our older generations.
'Some poems focus on a significant moment, while others provide a wider life narrative. The poems capture important stories of travel and work, family and milestones, achievements and struggles; they provide humble advice to younger generations, learned through circumstance, curiosity, or necessity.
'The poems are paired with watercolour portraits by artist Sierra McManus.' (Publication summary)
Contributors include: Carolyn Abbs, Ali Alizadeh, Stuart Barnes, Lachlan Brown, Eileen Chong, Ali Cobby Eckermann, Aidan Coleman, Paul Hetherington, Siobhan Hodge, Sarah Holland-Batt, Jeanine Leane, Leni Shilton, Ben Walter, Nick Whittock.
'Edited by Cassandra Atherton and Jessica L. Wilkinson, Memory Book is a collection of poetic portraits of Australians over seventy-five, each poem accompanied by a watercolour portrait of the subject. The editors have conceived the work as a ‘meeting point’ between the subject, the poet and the reader. It is a work well done. The watercolours are integral to the presentation; the portraits, both artistic and poetic, a reminder of the human face of experience. I admit that, as an older person, as the introduction asserts, I often ‘feel silenced or invisible’. This collection is a welcome attempt at a rebuttal of ageism, the ‘last sanctioned prejudice’.' (Introduction)
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'Edited by Cassandra Atherton and Jessica L. Wilkinson, Memory Book is a collection of poetic portraits of Australians over seventy-five, each poem accompanied by a watercolour portrait of the subject. The editors have conceived the work as a ‘meeting point’ between the subject, the poet and the reader. It is a work well done. The watercolours are integral to the presentation; the portraits, both artistic and poetic, a reminder of the human face of experience. I admit that, as an older person, as the introduction asserts, I often ‘feel silenced or invisible’. This collection is a welcome attempt at a rebuttal of ageism, the ‘last sanctioned prejudice’.' (Introduction)
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