The Blue Coat

Overview

Whimsical and tender, this poetry collection examines the commonplace and the quirky for resonance, contemplation, and verve. From an out-of-season daffodil and a chipped Limoges plate to a lipstick stain on a poem and a bee being released, it illuminates the poetry in the everyday by focusing on a single image and expanding to the cusp of something larger. At times meditative, at times playful—even slightly subversive—this compilation impresses with a surety of word, a deft touch, and a polished harmony.

Reviews

"Poised between the quotidian and the sublime, alert to both the glamour and the dogshit of Paris, Smither emerges from this collection as an uncommonly attractive poetic personality, by turns whimsical, piquant, learned, heartfelt, and acute, with a quick eye for absurdities, but never supercilious or scathing, inclined on the contrary to join in the fun."  —Sunday Star-Times on The Year of Adverbs

Author Biography

Elizabeth Smither is a former librarian and journalist and the recipient of numerous awards, including the 2012 Landfall Essay Prize, the Freda Buckland Award, the Prime Minister’s Award for Literary Achievement in Poetry, and the Lilian Ida Smith Award. She is a member of the New Zealand Order of Merit and the author of several poetry collections, novels, and short stories, including The Commonplace Book, The Lark Quartet, A Pattern of Marching, and The Year of the Adverbs.