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'This is a captivating and varied collection. No matter what Ella Jeffery turns her attention to, her subjects find sharp resolution in language that has been subtly crafted and beautifully honed. These poems carry their insights deftly and intensely, her lens always focussed on those alchemical images that move her work from sensation into perception, from observation into shimmering awareness. Everything shines with the gloss of her highly polished linguistic and imaginative skills. Her work is a triumph and a delight.
– Judith Beveridge
'As its title suggests, Dead Bolt is a meditation on home and its ability to become suddenly unhomely or uncanny. Ella Jeffery’s poetry ranges from the plangent and elegiac to the comic and satirical. It attends to both the eye and the ear; its extraordinary imagery is matched by a marvellous attention to poetry’s sonic capacity. Dead Bolt is a compelling, exquisitely realised debut.
– David McCooey
'I love Ella Jeffery’s poetry. Like Elizabeth Bishop’s, it is companionable and unshowily surprising, and has perfect timing. Jeffery is clear-eyed and has a gift for the exact word, one that opens a rift. This is a masterly and original first collection—a major work.
– Lisa Gorton'
Source : publisher's blurb
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Works about this Work
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You Can Live on Things like This
2021
single work
review
— Appears in: TEXT : The Journal of the Australian Association of Writing Programs , April vol. 25 no. 1 2021;
— Review of Nothing to Declare 2020 selected work poetry ; Dead Bolt 2020 selected work poetry -
It Must Have Been Moonglow : Three Luminous New Collections
2021
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , January–February no. 428 2021; (p. 53-54)
— Review of Wild Curious Air 2020 selected work poetry ; Dead Bolt 2020 selected work poetry ; Salute 2019 selected work poetry -
Julia Clark Reviews Dead Bolt by Ella Jeffery
2020
single work
review
— Appears in: Plumwood Mountain [Online] , November 2020;
— Review of Dead Bolt 2020 selected work poetry -
Thom Sullivan : Carte Blanche; Ella Jeffery : Dead Bolt
2020
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Poetry Review , no. 15 2020;
— Review of Carte Blanche 2019 selected work poetry ; Dead Bolt 2020 selected work poetry 'Two impressive and enjoyable first books whose similarities and differences go some small way to helping map out the possibilities of contemporary lyric poetry, especially in relationship to place. The accomplished poems of Thom Sullivan’s Carte Blanche, for example, include pieces like “Moorlands” and “Hay Cutting” which apply what might be called visual lyric techniques to the rural landscape of South Australia. They exploit the always interesting tensions between compression and expansion, suggesting much in little and the general in the specific.' (Introduction)
-
Thom Sullivan : Carte Blanche; Ella Jeffery : Dead Bolt
2020
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Poetry Review , no. 15 2020;
— Review of Carte Blanche 2019 selected work poetry ; Dead Bolt 2020 selected work poetry 'Two impressive and enjoyable first books whose similarities and differences go some small way to helping map out the possibilities of contemporary lyric poetry, especially in relationship to place. The accomplished poems of Thom Sullivan’s Carte Blanche, for example, include pieces like “Moorlands” and “Hay Cutting” which apply what might be called visual lyric techniques to the rural landscape of South Australia. They exploit the always interesting tensions between compression and expansion, suggesting much in little and the general in the specific.' (Introduction) -
Julia Clark Reviews Dead Bolt by Ella Jeffery
2020
single work
review
— Appears in: Plumwood Mountain [Online] , November 2020;
— Review of Dead Bolt 2020 selected work poetry -
It Must Have Been Moonglow : Three Luminous New Collections
2021
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , January–February no. 428 2021; (p. 53-54)
— Review of Wild Curious Air 2020 selected work poetry ; Dead Bolt 2020 selected work poetry ; Salute 2019 selected work poetry -
You Can Live on Things like This
2021
single work
review
— Appears in: TEXT : The Journal of the Australian Association of Writing Programs , April vol. 25 no. 1 2021;
— Review of Nothing to Declare 2020 selected work poetry ; Dead Bolt 2020 selected work poetry
Awards
- 2021 shortlisted ASAL Awards — Mary Gilmore Award for a First Book of Poetry
- 2020 winner Anne Elder Award
- 2019 inaugural winner Puncher and Wattmann First Book of Poetry Prize