Hide Description- Show Description+
shortlisted for the 2003 Tasmania Pacific Region Poetry Prize
Nominated for Best Use of Illustration in the 2002 Spectrum Print Book Design Awards
Illustration and design by Kathryn Madill
Bernadette Halls fifth collection will consolidate her reputation as one of the most distinctive poetic voices to have emerged in recent years. Her abiding themes of secular and religious love and the transporting passion of writing are strongly present, and are extended by a deepening political engagement with the history and possibilities of this land.
Settler Dreaming is an exquisite production featuring a suite of drawings by the Dunedin artist Kathryn Madill.
Omakau
The beautiful long back
of the woman in the black
and white photograph
The shoulder-blades
of shorn sheep, the way
the light gathers there
as they bend and eat.
Then all start walking
in the same direction.
Praise for Settler Dreaming
This is Hall's fifth collection of poetry and her best yet a beautiful book full of mystical drawings by Kathryn Madill which expand Hall's poetic vision of secular and religious love. . . These poems have warmth, depth, intelligence and lots of appeal. . . Settler Dreaming is quite outstanding.
Hamesh Wyatt OTAGO DAILY TIMES
Nestled in the lulling, simple rhythm of the stanza is this rather striking image. And in many
ways this is indicative of Hall's style, which veers towards the dramatic - they are poems as
much for the ear as for the eye.
Sarah Putt XTRA
