Maddy is mute and resides in an old apricot orchard in a small town. She struggles to express herself in words and is in a sort of stasis as she tries to escape the shadow of ‘the Incident’. When she meets a woman named Alice, who is in a similar dormancy, she finds solace in their growing friendship.
Kernot effectively weaves through the intricate challenges of the healing journey, secrets, and moving on from past adversities, and the revitalising effects of forming human connections and experiences. Despite emotional tragedies and losses, we tend to keep within ourselves. This story gives the needed message of communicating ‘it’ – for we are not burdening others with it, nor rendering ourselves vulnerable, but rather we are opening ourselves to change and the truth. Even if it is painful.
Birdy is a novel written in verse. It is for readers who like to read narratives that are brimming with emotion and complex human relationships that are largely central to the story.
I enjoyed reading Birdy and liked the creativity of the verse along with the use of words representing the emotional journey of the story.
Reviewed by Eevi, Year 12, Cerdon College, Merrylands NSW
Age Guide 14+
Read an interview with the author
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
I have an MA in Creative Writing from the University of Adelaide and a PhD from Flinders University. I’ve worked for TAFE, the University of South Australia and Flinders University, and for three years I was the Writer-in-Residence for people with disabilities at Writers SA.
My short fiction and poetry has been shortlisted and longlisted for a number of awards including the Whitmore Press Poetry Prize. Bauhinia Literary Awards, the Furphy Prize, the University of Canberra’s International Poetry Prize, the Bridport Short Story Prize, Aesthetica’s Creative Writing Awards and the James Tate International Poetry Prize. And in 2019 my poem ‘Eating Type’ won the Matthew Rocca Prize for poetry.
Underground Road, my debut novel, was shortlisted for the Adelaide Festival of Literature Awards Unpublished Manuscript Prize and later published by Wakefield Press and my verse novel, The Art of Taxidermy, was shortlisted for the 2017 Text Prize and published in 2018. Since then, it has been shortlisted and longlisted for a number of awards including the CBCA, the Inky Awards, the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards, the Prime Minister’s Literary Awards and the REAL Awards. My latest novel, Birdy, which is also published by Text, will be released on January 30, 2024. I’m currently working on a new verse novel, which recently received a project grant from Arts SA and a Varuna Residential Fellowship.
Over the years, I’ve had quite a few different jobs to fund my study, writing and travel. I’ve worked as a compositor, a typesetter, a financial counsellor, a community worker, an editor, an access worker, a writing coach and mentor, a tutor, a mental health worker, an editor and co-publisher of chapbooks, and for a very short time when I ran out of money while travelling I ironed sheets for a pension on a Greek Island.
Apart from reading and writing, I also love birds, animals, art and spending time in nature.
0 Comments