Lemons in the Chicken Wire

Winner 2015 black&write! Indigenous Writing Fellowship – a partnership between the State Library of Queensland’s black&write! Indigenous Writing and Editing Project and Magabala Books

From a remarkable new voice in Indigenous writing comes this highly original collection of poems bristling with stunning imagery and gritty textures. At times sensual, always potent, Lemons in the Chicken Wire delivers a collage of work that reflects rural identity through a rich medley of techniques and forms.

It is an audacious, lyrical and linguistically lemon flavoured poetry debut that possesses a rare edginess and seeks to challenge our imagination beyond the ordinary. Alison Whittaker demonstrates that borders, whether physical or imagined, are no match for our capacity for love.

About the Author

Alison Whittaker is a Gomeroi woman from Gunnedah and Tamworth, north-western New South Wales. She lives in Sydney and is currently studying a combined Bachelor of Arts in Communication (Writing and Cultural Studies) and Bachelor of Laws at the University of Technology Sydney. Alison’s work has been published in literary journals, small press zines and university publications, and will be included in an forthcoming collection of essays on Indigenous and queer identity. Her winning manuscript ‘Lemons in the Chicken Wire’ is a collection of poems about family, displacement, identity and love.