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'Imagine if six famous protagonists transcended chronological and geographical barriers to come together through a poetry group in Adelaide. Rhymes with Hyenas is an inventive narrative of emails and poetry that gives a female voice to characters originally written by men. They are Ursula from DH Lawrence’s Women in Love, Caddy from Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury, Melanie from Coetzee’s Disgrace, Delores from Nabokov’s Lolita, Katherina from Shakespeare’s Taming of the Shrew, and Lilith from Hebrew mythology.
'In a poignant ode to literature and Adelaide, these women are whole, complex characters, sometimes up to their breasts in mothering, sometimes homesick for exiled lands. They are lecturers, dog owners, art makers and carers who deal with illness and loss, with racism and addiction and domestic abuse. Their stories, initially limited by the masterpieces that spawned them, continue on: they are not a closed book.
'In a vibrant commentary on literary patriarchy and the patriarchy beyond, this book considers the place of writing, critiquing, reading, performing and publishing poetry in a woman’s space.'
Source : publisher's blurb
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Works about this Work
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Splinters of Blood: Reading Melinda Smith’s Man-handled and Heather TaylorJohnson’s Rhymes with Hyenas
2021
single work
review
essay
— Appears in: Social Alternatives , October vol. 40 no. 3 2021; (p. 47-51) 'Sometimes, words are as sharp as blood. A red drop falls in slow motion, hits the pristine white tiles of the kitchen floor and explodes like a thousand splinters. Each of Smith’s words has been sharpened this way; it has been meticulously drawn ‘forth through that / needle’s eye’ and assembled to compose the six parts that form her collection Man-handled. Its third part (a previously published found-text chapbook entitled Listen, bitch) physically locates violence — the voices and attitudes that repeatedly dehumanise, strip naked and turn others into pounds of fresh meat — at the core of the collection.' (Introduction) -
A Remarkable Feat of Poetic Ability : and Alison Flett Launch Rhymes With Hyenas by Heather Taylor Johnson
2021
single work
review
— Appears in: Rochford Street Review , no. 33 2021;
— Review of Rhymes with Hyenas 2021 selected work poetry'Hello and thank you all so much for coming tonight. It’s Alison Flett and my great honour to be launching Rhymes With Hyenas – the latest poetry collection by our incredible friend and sister-poet Heather Taylor Johnson.' (Introduction)
-
A Remarkable Feat of Poetic Ability : and Alison Flett Launch Rhymes With Hyenas by Heather Taylor Johnson
2021
single work
review
— Appears in: Rochford Street Review , no. 33 2021;
— Review of Rhymes with Hyenas 2021 selected work poetry'Hello and thank you all so much for coming tonight. It’s Alison Flett and my great honour to be launching Rhymes With Hyenas – the latest poetry collection by our incredible friend and sister-poet Heather Taylor Johnson.' (Introduction)
-
Splinters of Blood: Reading Melinda Smith’s Man-handled and Heather TaylorJohnson’s Rhymes with Hyenas
2021
single work
review
essay
— Appears in: Social Alternatives , October vol. 40 no. 3 2021; (p. 47-51) 'Sometimes, words are as sharp as blood. A red drop falls in slow motion, hits the pristine white tiles of the kitchen floor and explodes like a thousand splinters. Each of Smith’s words has been sharpened this way; it has been meticulously drawn ‘forth through that / needle’s eye’ and assembled to compose the six parts that form her collection Man-handled. Its third part (a previously published found-text chapbook entitled Listen, bitch) physically locates violence — the voices and attitudes that repeatedly dehumanise, strip naked and turn others into pounds of fresh meat — at the core of the collection.' (Introduction)
- Disgrace 1999 single work novel
- The Taming of the Shrew 1594 single work drama
- Lolita 1955 single work novel
- Adelaide, South Australia,