The Emma Press Book of BeastsThe Emma Press Book of Beasts rustles and roars with the voices of animals and humans, co existing on Earth with varying degrees of harmony. A scorpion appears in a shower; a deer jumps in front of a car. A swarm of snow fleas seethes through leaf litter; children bait a gorilla at the zoo. The poems in this anthology examine hierarchy, herds, power, and the price we pay for belonging.

As Professor Raymond Tallis says in his foreword

At their heart is an unwavering curiosity about how people behave in extreme situations

from the ancestors of the vanished Tainos in Jamaica who crossed the Behring Straits 40

cruelty and arguments about war

revitalised ways of thinking

A feature on leading Iraqi playwright and director Jawad al-Assadi includes his play Baghdadi Bathhouse

Several well known people are included

the ghosts of gangs spraying graffiti poetry

grandmother

The author writes with local people in mind and her book will be of interest to local and family historians

Nominated for the 2010 Portico Prize for Fiction

Moreau where dream and the subconscious are barely contained by the rational impulses of language—to fascinating effect