Because a Woman's Heart is Like a Needle at the Bottom of the Ocean

Through fun and gore, love and monsters, Sugar Magnolia Wilson's riveting first collection takes readers inside a world where past and present, fiction and fact, author and subject collide. Playful and yet not so sunny, these poems invite you in with extravagant and surprising imagery, only to reveal the uneasy, Frankenstein world within. `Sugar Magnolia Wilson's work punches holes into a parallel universe which explains ourselves back to us. Because a Woman's Heart is Like a Needle at the Bottom of the Ocean uncovers deep secrets within the reader through Wilson's intelligence, craft and close observation of being. It's an exceptional and uplifting collection which is a joy to read.' - Pip Adam `These poems are clever, intriguing, resistant, arresting, strange, funny and pleasingly unusual. Humorously self-conscious and with a wonderful facility with imagery, the overwhelming evidence in this collection is that Wilson is a significant new writer with a distinctive voice of her own.' - Mark Williams Dear Sister -- Anne Boleyn -- The monster -- Betty as a boy -- Newton Gully mix tape -- Conversation with my boyfriend -- Bathhouse night chat -- Home Alone 2 (with you) -- Full moon celebrations -- Heat wave -- Snow chart -- The moon and my 'house': a review of Haruki Murakami's novel, 1Q84 -- Pup art -- Final 80s exposé -- Glamour -- Moon-baller -- Spent -- Gingerly -- Spirit-liver -- Cabin -- Because a woman's heart is like a needle at the bottom of the ocean -- Crane fly -- Mother -- The lake has a long memory -- Muddy heart -- Town -- Bone tired -- The sleep of trees -- Dear X -- Pen pal This is a first collection from a significant new voice in New Zealand poetry. Through fun and gore, love and monsters, Sugar Magnolia Wilson’s riveting first collection takes readers inside a world where past and present, fiction and fact, author and subject collide. Playful and yet not so sunny, these poems invite you in with extravagant and surprising imagery, only to reveal the uneasy, Frankenstein world within.