‘Flat White, One Sugar’: 51 new poems by me, 21 illustrations by my granddaughter, Natasha Sommer, a graduate of the National Art School. Cover drawing by Natasha – out soon.
COVER REVEAL
books and writing
My Poem, Safe … The Pandemic
Have a read of my poem, ‘Safe … The Pandemic’ first published in ‘Milestones’ Anthology (Ginninderra Press). It is also one of the poems in my debut collection, ‘The Cellist, a Bellydance & Other Distractions‘ (Ginninderra Press).
I hope you enjoy it.
Safe … The Pandemic:
Everyone needs order,
clothes rehung,
cut roses secured in
a vase.
When we move,
when we place one foot
and then the other,
we can put small things in place,
an email to a friend in another country,
bags of rubbish carried out
to the bins.
Our brains, wired this way,
want the winter doona
smoothed squarely across the bed,
the freezer stocked, and remotes
in position.
After we get out, we have only to move
cautiously, surrounded by so much space.
Copyright © 2023 Libby Sommer
My Poem ‘Twisted Tea’
Have a read of my poem ‘Twisted Tea’ first published in ‘For Ukraine: by Women of the World‘.
Dr Diann Rogers Healey, founder of the Australian Centre for Leadership for Women called for and brought together a collection of poetry and prose by 35 writers from Australia, Fiji, New Zealand, United States, and the United Kingdom. We wrote in solidarity with those impacted by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
All proceeds from the sale of the book will go to United Nations Women Australia for assistance in Ukraine. Available on Amazon and other online outlets. Please read the book and review.
Twisted Tea
I splattered the last of my favourite
loose leaf tea all over the floor today,
when I lost my grip on the lid.
Twisted Oolong produced in Ukraine
it said on the label.
But it is a time of such sadness,
a spilt canister of loose leaf
is hardly worth mentioning.
So many shattered tea sets
buried in the rubble.
Ceramic pots and porcelain mugs,
smashed.
Fierce railroads bombed, buildings, farms.
Civilians tortured.
“Filthy scumbags,”
said President Zelensky.
“What else can you call them?”
I watch a woman sob on camera.
“Their soldiers are barbaric.
They don’t understand.
They are murderers.”
It is hard to consider sipping tea
without crying into the cup.
Will the small tea plantation
—out of the line of fire for now—
be spared?
I’m holding as tight as I can
to the thought that one day
we’ll be able to celebrate
with a pot of rare twisted oolong loose
leaf tea produced on a small farm
tucked away somewhere
in a corner of Ukraine.
Copyright 2022 Libby Sommer
For Ukraine: by Women of the World
Dr Diann Rogers Healey, founder of the Australian Centre for Leadership for Women called for and brought together a collection of poetry and prose ‘For Ukraine: by Women of the World’.
35 writers from Australia, Fiji, New Zealand, United States, and the United Kingdom have written in solidarity with those impacted by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
I’m honoured that my poem ‘Twisted Tea’ has been included in this important collection. Professor Shirley Randell AO, wrote the Foreword. She mentions a few pieces that stood out for her including ‘Twisted Tea’.
All proceeds from the sale of the book will go to United Nations Women Australia for assistance in Ukraine. The book is available on Amazon and other online outlets. Please read and review.
Finalist Award, ‘Not keeping mum’
The anthology ‘Not keeping mum‘ – Australian writers tell the truth about perinatal anxiety and depression in poetry, fiction & essay – edited by Maya Linden, has been named a Finalist in the Indie Book Awards (2020-2021). My short story ‘The New Baby’, first published in Quadrant magazine, is part of the anthology. All Winners and Finalists are invited to the award ceremony in Washington DC on 24 June. Very exciting news.
“Heartfelt, at times confronting and occasionally funny, this collection gives insight into how women navigate the profound changes that occur in their bodies, relationships and lives when they become a parent, and how they find the light at the end of the tunnel.”
– Anne Buist, perinatal psychiatrist, professor women’s mental health and author of the Natalie King trilogy and The Long Shadow
You can purchase a copy here:
The Cellist, a Bellydancer & Other Distractions
I’ve received final proofs from my publisher, Ginninderra Press for my first poetry collection, ‘The Cellist, a Bellydance & Other Distractions’. In the home stretch now for publication of my sixth book. Happy happy.
So what are final proofs?
Proofs created by the printer for approval by the publisher before going to press are called final proofs. At this stage in production, all mistakes are supposed to have been corrected and the pages are set up in imposition for folding and cutting on the press. To correct a mistake at this stage entails an extra cost per page, so authors are discouraged from making many changes to final proofs, while last-minute corrections by the in-house publishing staff may be accepted.
In the final proof stage, page layouts are examined closely. Additionally, because final page proofs contain the final pagination, if an index was not compiled at an earlier stage in production, this pagination facilitates compiling a book’s index and correcting its table of contents.
Wikipedia
I’ll let you know when the book is released.
First Proofs
I’ve corrected the first proofs of my first poetry collection, ‘The Cellist, a Bellydancer & Other Distractions’ and posted them back to my publisher, Ginninderra Press.
So what are first proofs?
According to Wikipedia:
In printing and publishing, proofs are the preliminary versions of publications meant for review by authors, editors, and proofreaders, often with extra-wide margins.
Proof, in the typographical sense, is a term that dates to around 1600.[4] The primary goal of proofing is to create a tool for verification that the job is accurate. All needed or suggested changes are physically marked on paper proofs or electronically marked on electronic proofs by the author, editor, and proofreaders. The compositor, typesetter, or printer receives the edited copies, corrects and re-arranges the type or the pagination, and arranges for the press workers to print the final or published copies.
So now I’m waiting for my publisher to send me final proofs. A proofreader will check the final proofs before I post them back.
Also front and back cover images and information are now being finalised.
Then comes printing of my new book. A very exciting time.
It will be about a month until release of ‘The Cellist, a Bellydancer & Other Distractions’. In the collection there is a poem about a cellist, another about a bellydancer, and one about distraction. 45 poems in total.
I’ll let you know when I’ve got a publication date.
My Flash Fiction ‘Sober Sixty’
Have a read of my flash fiction ‘Sober Sixty’ first published in the Grieve Anthology, August 2020, Stories and Poems of Grief and Loss.
Sober Sixty
Samantha’s single women friends were envious, although she assured them Johnny wasn’t perfect. Mood swings, challenging stuff like that.
Nobody messed with Johnny. Nobody knew better than he did, he was always watching YouTube and learning new facts and figures. Also, he rode a motorbike and practiced shooting at weekends. There were Facebook groups for bike riders and a rifle range nearby. Johnny was proud of being a rev-head and a good shot with his gun, and not many people could disagree that he had unusual interests for a man his age.
Sober since forty and counting, he said about his sobriety. They didn’t talk about his twenties and thirties.
There’s a photograph of the two of them from Christmas day. Johnny had tried to lower himself to Samantha’s height for the photo so they’d be on the same level. Stand up tall, she’d said. Stand to your full height. That’s right, he’d said. You like things big.
What does ATP in ATP Cup stand for? was the type of thing Johnny would call out while she poured him a glass of water before setting out on a stroll around the block.
Samantha thought she knew the answer, but didn’t want to risk being wrong. She’d learnt to tiptoe around his wildness and dreaded the fighting when she wasn’t attentive enough to his needs. Dry drunk, AA called it. The unpredictable rages were doing her head in. She knew she needed the courage to walk away.
Now she’s getting by a day at a time.
Her friends say she’s one of the lucky ones. She’s dodged a bullet.
Copyright Libby Sommer 2020
Grieve 2020 Anthology available from Hunter Writer’s Centre website or Booktopia https://hunterwriterscentre.org/bookshop/
Dyslexia
October is Dyslexia Awareness Month worldwide.
Albert Einstein, Walt Disney and Leonardo da Vinci are some of the many famous people diagnosed with dyslexia. Others include Jamie Oliver, Richard Branson, Whoopi Goldberg and Steven Spielberg.
Dyslexia is described as a persistent challenge with acquiring and using written language and is often found to be hereditary. Children struggle to read, don’t want to go to school, feel stupid. Many end up in jail. Apparently, it is fixable, with the right teachers.
My debut novel, ‘My Year With Sammy‘ tells the story of one child’s struggle with severe dyslexia and the effects of her battle on the world around her. The book was Pick of the Week, Sydney Morning Herald and winner of the Society of Women Writers Fiction Book Award 2016.
Launch of ‘Lost in Cooper Park’
Celebrating the launch of ‘Lost in Cooper Park’. The book is reviewing well. Always hard to know how your work will be received. So far so good.
Libby Sommer, Author 