AustLit
Latest Issues
AbstractHistoryArchive Description
'In Universal Mother, Elif Sezen braids the intersections of domestic histories and spiritual evolution. She navigates the large themes: complementary concepts of separation and homecoming, visible and invisible, eternity and temporality, love and grief, irony and melancholy.
'The world these poems conjure is one of imagination and mystical longing. The poet’s mother and the poet herself, as feminine, are the departure point for the persona in these poems, journeying haunted and at times ecstatic through surprising venues and occasions.
'As myth-making for a self, and as social understanding, Elif Sezen’s imagery in this book bridges the personal and the collective, in a special sense. Reflecting upon her own transcultural identity, this work carries itself across boundaries between East and West.'
Source: Publisher's blurb.
Notes
-
Dedication: To my Mother Aliye Sanli
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Works about this Work
-
Passion, Intelligence & Creativity : Beatriz Copello Reviews ‘Universal Mother’ by Elif Sezen
2019
single work
review
— Appears in: Rochford Street Review , no. 26 2019;
— Review of Universal Mother 2016 selected work poetry'Elif Sezen is a talented Australian poet who grew up in Australia and in Turkey, she writes poetry both in English and in Turkish and is an interdisciplinary visual artist with a PHD in Fine Arts. Sezen’s poetry takes the reader on a cross-cultural trip where we encounter poems, which reflect the adaptation of a migrant to a new culture and a new of way of life. She also takes us into ancestral trips, into memories of far away exotic lands and on trips, which appear to arise from the deepest corners of her creative mind. Words shaded by culture, the female essence and the enigma of living adorn the pages of Universal Mother.' (Introduction)
-
Review Short: Elif Sezen’s Universal Mother
2017
single work
essay
— Appears in: Cordite Poetry Review , 1 May vol. 80 no. 2017;'There is something delicious about a collection that doesn’t open itself up to the reader on a first or even second reading and yet compels them to come back to it, something delightful about lines that lodge themselves in your brain and demand a third, fourth, fifth reading to reunite them with the poems they come from.' (Introduction)
-
[Review Essay] Australian Poetry
2017
single work
essay
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 7 January 2017; (p. 16) 'Local in scale, domestic in setting, Diane Fahey’s A House by the River (Puncher & Wattmann, 93pp, $25) is nonetheless epic and monumental in its almost geological study of grief: prospective, overwhelmingly present and fading into what becomes normal life. The book covers a period of 11 years or so: six spent as carer for her mother in the family home at Barwon Heads, Victoria, and the five after her mother’s death, grieving, surviving, reconciling.' (Introduction) -
Old and New Voices Mark an Auspicious Debut
2016
single work
review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 5-6 November 2016; (p. 29)
— Review of Anatomy of Voice 2016 single work poetry ; This Is What Gives Us Time 2016 selected work poetry ; Universal Mother 2016 selected work poetry
-
Old and New Voices Mark an Auspicious Debut
2016
single work
review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 5-6 November 2016; (p. 29)
— Review of Anatomy of Voice 2016 single work poetry ; This Is What Gives Us Time 2016 selected work poetry ; Universal Mother 2016 selected work poetry -
Passion, Intelligence & Creativity : Beatriz Copello Reviews ‘Universal Mother’ by Elif Sezen
2019
single work
review
— Appears in: Rochford Street Review , no. 26 2019;
— Review of Universal Mother 2016 selected work poetry'Elif Sezen is a talented Australian poet who grew up in Australia and in Turkey, she writes poetry both in English and in Turkish and is an interdisciplinary visual artist with a PHD in Fine Arts. Sezen’s poetry takes the reader on a cross-cultural trip where we encounter poems, which reflect the adaptation of a migrant to a new culture and a new of way of life. She also takes us into ancestral trips, into memories of far away exotic lands and on trips, which appear to arise from the deepest corners of her creative mind. Words shaded by culture, the female essence and the enigma of living adorn the pages of Universal Mother.' (Introduction)
-
[Review Essay] Australian Poetry
2017
single work
essay
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 7 January 2017; (p. 16) 'Local in scale, domestic in setting, Diane Fahey’s A House by the River (Puncher & Wattmann, 93pp, $25) is nonetheless epic and monumental in its almost geological study of grief: prospective, overwhelmingly present and fading into what becomes normal life. The book covers a period of 11 years or so: six spent as carer for her mother in the family home at Barwon Heads, Victoria, and the five after her mother’s death, grieving, surviving, reconciling.' (Introduction) -
Review Short: Elif Sezen’s Universal Mother
2017
single work
essay
— Appears in: Cordite Poetry Review , 1 May vol. 80 no. 2017;'There is something delicious about a collection that doesn’t open itself up to the reader on a first or even second reading and yet compels them to come back to it, something delightful about lines that lodge themselves in your brain and demand a third, fourth, fifth reading to reunite them with the poems they come from.' (Introduction)