The Light Breaks Open

Sarah Tiffen’s third book of poetry is full of the sensual imagery and textured observations for which she is becoming known. The sense of place and people resonates in these stories of life and love, connection to land, the struggle to survive, to belong, to reconcile. Here is Australian work, exploring Australian themes, familiar, yet renewed. There is something for everyone in this collection – work that can be read and reread to enjoy the subtleties and the beauty of the language, the depth of the narrative line. In the words of Donald Hall, fourteenth American poet laureate, ‘Sarah Tiffen is writing some beautiful stuff.’ ‘Rain Event in the Whispering Country’, which appears in this collection, was selected for publication in Best Poems of 2008 (UQP).