Bøker utgitt av Otago University Press

Delving both into ''the worlds of the mind'' and ''where he happens to be'', Owen Marshall brings us poetry that is steeped in the Classics, history and literature, and yet is alive with the vivid particulars of damp duffle-coats and hot-air balloons, beer and bicycles, willows and skylarks, kauri gum and limestone tunnels.

Michael Harlow's poems are small detonations that release deeply complex stories of psychological separations and attractions, of memory and desire. Frequently they slip into the alluring spaces just at the edges of language, dream and gesture, as they carefully lower, like measuring gauges, into the ineffable: intimations of mortality, the slippery nature of identity, longing, fear ... This is a beautifully honed new collection.

The life stories in this book are by people who, at some point in their lives, have been diagnosed with a mental illness which they have learned to deal with. They have found the courage to speak publicly about their experience in a world which is still prejudiced against people with mental illness. The book is a source of inspiration for anyone with mental illness and their family and friends, a unique teaching tool for people working in the mental health area, and a way of opening doors on mental illness and letting in some light, for us all.