Description
How far would you go to attract, hold onto, or lose a lover? In Blueprints for a Minefield, we find women trying their luck with Jesus, marrying trees and plotting murder. Meanwhile, one male suitor makes a dessert of himself while another takes mortal risks on a trapeze. James Dean returns from the dead. A fish covets a bicycle. Will anyone find their green grass, their grapefruit moon?
“In these emotive reflections on modern relationships, the formal range – from sestina to prose poem to playscript to Oulipo-inspired textual experiment – is dazzling. Poems like ‘Lead Me on with My Eyes Blindfolded’ and ‘The Woman Who Married an Oak’ are laugh-out-loud funny.
Above all, though, it is the astonishing originality of Shauna Robertson’s voice – ‘If the hair could be blonder still and grown and grown until it transcends state lines,’ ‘I’m not against standing up straight so long as I don’t look too tall or too short or too medium or like a loudspeaker’ – that stands out.”
Jonathan Edwards
“Witty, energetic and original, Shauna Robertson’s Blueprints for a Minefield is a delightful read and a most welcome debut.”
Carrie Etter
“Shauna Robertson has written a rich, compelling book of poetry that deserves to be widely read.
Blueprints for a Minefield is full of standout poems. Sometimes heartbreaking, often funny, this is a wholly original pamphlet.”
James O’Leary for Sabotage Reviews Go here for the full review
David Troman for Orbis #178 magazine (excerpt):
“If Alice wanted to impress the Queen of Hearts with poetry, this is the book she would read. Initially, it seems surreal.
However, by the time you’ve read half a dozen pages, the surreal is accepted as the norm, and your brain directed beyond conventional perception by Robertson’s vivid imagery.
… An entertaining, sometimes challenging read – why not take up the challenge?”
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