AustLit

'The colours on the cover of Lisa Jacobson’s South in the World suggest a sunset. Blooming clouds, glowing sky. An image that summons deep breaths. Blink, and there’s violence in the scene. Not clouds, but smoke moving as quickly as the forest fire that must be beneath it. This sensation of stillness one moment and then suffocation the next is a sensation I felt throughout the collection, full of poems that capture the sweetness of childhood along with the speed and danger of adolescence and adulthood. This feels like a highly personal work. Jacobson’s poems are beautifully written, and the collection is tightly structured: divided into five parts, the collection explores the themes of childhood and motherhood, faith and loss of faith, and activism and awareness.' (Introduction)