Description

This is a moving and deeply evocative collection of poems, photographs and paintings. Most are based on nature, especially the Darebin Parklands which the poet loves. Marietta explores themes of light, friendship, illness and immortality.

The poems were translated into Dutch by Joris Lenstra, a Dutch writer, translator and editor. He received his MA in Literature from the Dutch University of Utrecht in 2002 and has edited and translated several books.

New review in Cordite journal!

About the author: Marietta Elliott-Kleerkoper was born in Amsterdam on the last day of 1937, the elder of two girls. The family survived the Holocaust and immigrated to Australia in 1949.

Marietta taught foreign languages and English as a Second Language in schools and universities and worked as a freelance editor. She has been published in Australia and the Netherlands and has won several poetry prizes, including the Victorian Cancer Council’s ‘Daffodil Day’ Award (2004). Her first Dutch-English collection: Island of wakefulness / Eiland van waakzaamheid, appeared with Hybrid Publishers in 2006. Her breast cancer has recently metastasised to the spine.

‘The title of the collection is perfect – it captures both the richness and the fragileness of every singularity of perception, and may even remind us that there are things we cannot possess without destroying … Marietta’s meticulous care for words and language is one of the hallmarks of her writing.’
–Alex Skovron. To read the rest of his launch speech, click here.

‘A perfect distortion is a book of many layers, stunningly illustrated by both Marietta’s photography and Danial Kogan’s paintings … Once you begin reading this book, you will find it hard to put down.’  —Sue Stanford

‘… these images, tiny narratives, lines of glimpsed wisdom are the perfect distortions that reveal a world unfolding before us.’ —Kevin Brophy

‘…an engaging collection’ –Geoff Page. Read the rest of the review here.