AustLit
Latest Issues
AbstractHistoryArchive Description
'The collection is in two parts, with each one interrogating love, loss, gender and aesthetics. The poems refract these themes through personal experience, as well as through a broader cultural lens. Some of these works are direct responses to the act of reading literature. The hallmark of this collection is precision with language: these works are always present and vivid.' (Publication summary)
Notes
-
For my mother and father,
Beverely and Ivan Fealy,
and for my first poetry mentors,
Judith Rodriguez and Rom Pretty
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Works about this Work
-
Helen Hagemann Reviews Flute of Milk by Susan Fealy
2017
single work
review
— Appears in: Plumwood Mountain [Online] , October 2017;
— Review of Flute of Milk 2017 selected work poetry -
Susan Fealy, Flute of Milk
2017
single work
essay
— Appears in: Transnational Literature , November vol. 10 no. 1 2017;'Susan Fealy’s poetry volume imparts intricate, visual, moody and surreal subtleties, with the alacrity and refinement of a true philologist. The narratives reconfigure the subject matter, making salient the beautiful, the tender, the refractorily timeless with immersion in experience. Symbolism, allegory, and metaphor are richly deployed throughout the volume. Most certainly, Fealy has a refined appreciation for art, literature, and film; her talent for transmuting these into poetic creations attests to this. The reverence however, rests more in the visual than the existential: even the very sad is still very visually pristine (Flute of Milk; In Lieu of a Statue).' (Introduction)
-
Review Short: Susan Fealy’s Flute of Milk
2017
single work
essay
— Appears in: Cordite Poetry Review , 1 May vol. 80 no. 2017;Award-winning Melbourne poet Susan Fealy’s first full-length collection is an engrossing and richly resonant volume, one that – like all good artworks – reveals greater connective complexity with each subsequent encounter. The work is divided into two parts, with section one’s epigraph drawing the first sixteen poems into a meaning formation that takes off from a Louise Glück work. In the selected Glück couplet, God addresses humans on the making of a life, referring to the ‘bed of earth’ and ‘blanket of blue air’ that are meant to sustain us. Fealy’s first section proceeds to explore this earth / sky schema, in poems that travel through such ‘earth’-associated ideas as materiality, body, and the present, as well as through notions relating to ephemerality, thought / imagination, and the past (‘sky’). The lengthier part two approaches similar territory from a different angle, using an excerpt from Robert Haas’ ‘A Story About the Body’ to foreshadow a heavier emphasis on events relating to the life cycle. Circulating thematically through both sections are questions regarding the relationship between mind and body, or, put another way, between intellect and creativity, an issue that comes to a head in the striking, quite personal concluding poem. ‘Writing with the Left Hand’ makes use of Hélène Cixous’ theory of writing through the body to suggest that perhaps the soma is the more trustworthy aspect of the human, and that it should somehow be liberated (‘cut off’) from cerebral limitations. But prior to this a wealth of figurative detail portrays life as far more fluid than binary, so that, on balance, this final piece offers no resolutory conclusion.' (Introduction)
-
Small Miracle and Other Visions
2017
single work
essay
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 24 June 2017; (p. 22) 'In the field of Australian poetry publishing, hope is never lost. However small the print run, limited the critical response, minimal the financial return, presses have always started up and battled on, fuelled by idealism. The latest player has made an ambitious beginning. The poetry series from Perth-based UWA Publishing was “established in 2016 in response to the decline in poetry publishing nationally and to the high volume of quality submissions we receive”.' (Introduction) -
'A Personal History of Vision' by Luke Fischer, 'Flute of Milk' by Susan Fealy', and 'Dark Convicts: Ex-slaves on the First Fleet' by Judy Johnson
2017
single work
essay
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , May no. 391 2017; 'The UWAP Poetry imprint began in late 2016, and there are already fourteen titles available. To judge from the quality of the three reviewed here, UWAP’s energy and ambition is well-placed.' (Introduction)
-
Helen Hagemann Reviews Flute of Milk by Susan Fealy
2017
single work
review
— Appears in: Plumwood Mountain [Online] , October 2017;
— Review of Flute of Milk 2017 selected work poetry -
An Acute Aesthetic Sensibility : Alex Skovron Launches ‘Flute of Milk’ by Susan Fealy
2017
single work
essay
— Appears in: Rochford Street Review , January – March no. 21 2017; 'It was near enough to a decade ago that one Susan Fealy materialized on the Melbourne literary scene as if out of nowhere – or so it seems in retrospect, and so it appeared to me at the time. She had written a searching response to my then recently published novella, The Poet, and this led to an exchange of emails and our first meeting. We began to cross paths at poetry readings, and I soon discovered that Susan loved to write long but interesting emails packed with her musings and reflections on matters literary, artistic, or otherwise noteworthy. As time went on, these emails, and our conversations whenever we met up, gradually revealed to me a person who thought hard about language, art, ideas, the natural world; a serious, passionate reader who probed deeply into whatever text was before her or whatever notion was exercising her mind.' (Introduction) -
'A Personal History of Vision' by Luke Fischer, 'Flute of Milk' by Susan Fealy', and 'Dark Convicts: Ex-slaves on the First Fleet' by Judy Johnson
2017
single work
essay
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , May no. 391 2017; 'The UWAP Poetry imprint began in late 2016, and there are already fourteen titles available. To judge from the quality of the three reviewed here, UWAP’s energy and ambition is well-placed.' (Introduction) -
Small Miracle and Other Visions
2017
single work
essay
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 24 June 2017; (p. 22) 'In the field of Australian poetry publishing, hope is never lost. However small the print run, limited the critical response, minimal the financial return, presses have always started up and battled on, fuelled by idealism. The latest player has made an ambitious beginning. The poetry series from Perth-based UWA Publishing was “established in 2016 in response to the decline in poetry publishing nationally and to the high volume of quality submissions we receive”.' (Introduction) -
Review Short: Susan Fealy’s Flute of Milk
2017
single work
essay
— Appears in: Cordite Poetry Review , 1 May vol. 80 no. 2017;Award-winning Melbourne poet Susan Fealy’s first full-length collection is an engrossing and richly resonant volume, one that – like all good artworks – reveals greater connective complexity with each subsequent encounter. The work is divided into two parts, with section one’s epigraph drawing the first sixteen poems into a meaning formation that takes off from a Louise Glück work. In the selected Glück couplet, God addresses humans on the making of a life, referring to the ‘bed of earth’ and ‘blanket of blue air’ that are meant to sustain us. Fealy’s first section proceeds to explore this earth / sky schema, in poems that travel through such ‘earth’-associated ideas as materiality, body, and the present, as well as through notions relating to ephemerality, thought / imagination, and the past (‘sky’). The lengthier part two approaches similar territory from a different angle, using an excerpt from Robert Haas’ ‘A Story About the Body’ to foreshadow a heavier emphasis on events relating to the life cycle. Circulating thematically through both sections are questions regarding the relationship between mind and body, or, put another way, between intellect and creativity, an issue that comes to a head in the striking, quite personal concluding poem. ‘Writing with the Left Hand’ makes use of Hélène Cixous’ theory of writing through the body to suggest that perhaps the soma is the more trustworthy aspect of the human, and that it should somehow be liberated (‘cut off’) from cerebral limitations. But prior to this a wealth of figurative detail portrays life as far more fluid than binary, so that, on balance, this final piece offers no resolutory conclusion.' (Introduction)
-
Susan Fealy, Flute of Milk
2017
single work
essay
— Appears in: Transnational Literature , November vol. 10 no. 1 2017;'Susan Fealy’s poetry volume imparts intricate, visual, moody and surreal subtleties, with the alacrity and refinement of a true philologist. The narratives reconfigure the subject matter, making salient the beautiful, the tender, the refractorily timeless with immersion in experience. Symbolism, allegory, and metaphor are richly deployed throughout the volume. Most certainly, Fealy has a refined appreciation for art, literature, and film; her talent for transmuting these into poetic creations attests to this. The reverence however, rests more in the visual than the existential: even the very sad is still very visually pristine (Flute of Milk; In Lieu of a Statue).' (Introduction)
Awards
- 2018 winner SWW Book Awards — Poetry
- 2018 shortlisted ASAL Awards — Mary Gilmore Award for a First Book of Poetry
- 2017 winner Australian Centre Literary Awards — Wesley Michel Wright Prize in Poetry