Almost afloat

Also to be published next week in 10k format are three short stories by the very fine Dunedin writer, Carolyn McCurdie. Albatross is also the title of the first story in which elderly 'Miss Flockton' heads out to sea with a storm threatening. Local policeman Evan Brody feels duty-bound to follow but their eventual meeting is not quite as he expects — it is more fraught and more tender. Carolyn specialises in these moments of 'Collision' (another title) where expectations are quietly overturned and understanding of the other — and the self — is made possible.

Ratty is very taken with the kauri trees of the Waitakere ranges however is turning his attention to the launch of three terrific new 10,000-word ebooks.

 Carolyn is also a poet who won first prize and commended in the 2013 NZ Poetry Society International Poetry Competition, judged by Vincent O’Sullivan.

Formidable! (Fr)

The Linen Way has its first review. Well, rave, actually. By a writer well qualified to rave. Carolyn McCurdie is an author and poet of quiet power. She's just quietly won the NZ Poetry Society's 2013 International Competition with her poem 'Making up the Spare Beds for the Brothers Grimm'. Ratty, managing to read her review as a personal victory, had himself (slightly under-)baked into a mocha cake.

Take it away, Carolyn:
"Here I am, standing on the tallest roof-top, bellowing into the largest megaphone I can find, to rave about The Linen Way by Melissa Green. What adjectives will do the job? I'll try: luminescent, brave, beautiful. I've never read such a powerful testament to poetry. It's as essential here as oxygen, as love.

For her, it was life and death. Suffering from mental illness, living in a cruel, unloving family, Melissa made her first suicide attempt aged eight. Books, words, poetry kept her alive, gave her meaning and passion before the next sucking surge of nothing. There is courage here beyond my understanding.

This is also a testament to gift. Melissa Green's own gift of language declares itself on every line, but she also stands witness to the tenderness, faithfulness of great poets and therapists who reached out to her, pulling her back to life and to her true writing self again and again. She was mentored by Derek Walcott, who gave her tough-love guidance, and his relentless belief in her. The Russian poet Joseph Brodsky sat for hours with his arms around her when she was at her lowest points. I will never read the poetry of these men in the same way again. They gave her the persevering, unconditional love that was so lacking in her early life, making this a soaring song of hope from someone who began with none.

When I finished reading this, I felt I had been given a gift, as if Melissa Green had pressed some small thing into the palm of my hand for my fingers to curl around in recognition. I've read it twice, and each time I've felt a little changed by it. I'll read it again. It will change me further.

MESSAGE TO THE WORLD: BUY AND READ THIS BOOK!"