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Shortlisted - Best First Book of Poetry - Montana New Zealand Book Awards 2007
After the dance
the doors are locked
the dancers sleep
in single beds
The mother asks the father
did he know about the wolf? . . .
After the Dance is a superb first collection of poems.
The folk tale feel of these poems gives them the power of some magical charm or dispensation uttered to dispel a curse. The book feels like a transforming spell something which is spoken aloud to redeem the past and restore possibility.
Bill Manhire
Michele lives experiences with intensity and reworks them in her poems with the same intensity, with heart truthfulness, eyes wide open in the dark. She takes the dark into her work, alive with sparkly wit and good humour. Bernadette Hall
Praise for After the Dance
Humour is, throughout the book, a quiet presence, popping up unexpectedly during poems about the death of parents, the effects of divorce and parental love. Compartmentalising Amas poems like this makes them appear heavy, but I assure you, theyre not.
Amy Brown SALIENT
Amass poetry combines evidence of emotional bruising with a sense of tenacity and the importance of laughter. This is poetry with heart, written with a surety that belies the fact that it is a first collection.
Laura Fergusson LUMIERE READER
...this is a collection that deserves to find an audience, and which rewards rereading.
Hugh Roberts THE LISTENER
