Author Archives: Amanda

The Handbag: Adding Depth to Characterisation

Story Characterisation: ‘The lip balm indicates that I have chapped lips, and the handcream shows I have dry hands. These are both indications that I don’t drink enough water, so I’m not really looking after my body.’

Here is the Beehive by Sarah Crossan

How does Sarah Crossan render trauma in her poetic novel, Here is the Beehive? Book Description: ‘Ana and Connor have been having an affair for three years. In hotel rooms and coffee shops, swiftly deleted texts and briefly snatched weekends, they have built a world with none but the two of them in it. ButContinue reading “Here is the Beehive by Sarah Crossan”

You and Me by Nicola Rayner

‘Fran is a first person narrator who is defined by her lack of credibility to the reader. Her version of events is unreliable. While her unreliability is apparent early on, Rayner still takes time to handle Fran delicately by allowing these traits to build and surface gradually.’

Poetics Devices: How the Kenning Works

Kenning I have been working on my poem Blackthorn on and off from March 2019 . During this time, the poem has gone through many changes. The current poem is version twenty-one. In this post, my focus is on the use of the poetic device kenning, which I have utilised on the second line ofContinue reading “Poetics Devices: How the Kenning Works”

Poetic Devices: Omission and Inclusion in Haiku

Subtext In his book of translated Haiku, The Moon in the Pines, Richard Clements says, upon reading a Haiku, the reader is ‘startled into a momentary but full understanding of the poet’s experience’ in that moment of reading. However, the words don’t quite capture the fullness of the moment. Through the inscription of a ‘partialContinue reading “Poetic Devices: Omission and Inclusion in Haiku”