Apple & Tree

by Johanna Emeney

 JULY 2011| RRP: $28.00 | Published By Cape Catley LTD

A first collection from a rising New Zealand poet, runner-up in the prestigious British Hippocrates prize for Poetry and Medicine.  Johanna Emeney, back in New Zealand after time in the UK, brings us a fresh contemporary poetry book – poems to listen to in the car, copy into diaries, stick on fridges and send to friends.

Praise for this first collection:

‘Johanna Emeney’s poems always contain a surprise. They look courageously at difficult subjects, allow abstract and particular to co-exist and balance reality with desire.’ 

Elizabeth Smither

‘Jo Emeney’s poems are the genuine article ... when they are just about to relax, they stand on tiptoe.’                 

Kevin Ireland

'Johanna Emeney has a great ear.’

Matthew Francis, The Guardian, UK  An English teacher, Johanna Emeney currently lives on Auckland’s North Shore after a number of years in the UK where after Cambridge she taught in Norfolk.  On her return she taught English at Kristin School, Albany and is working on her doctoral thesis at the University’s College of Humanities and Social Sciences. She tutors workshops for both young and older people, including the Young Writers’ Workshops on behalf of the Michael King Writers’ Centre, Devonport.  Jo has been published in Metro, North & South, Poetry NZ, Takahe, Blackmail Press, Snorkel, English in Aotearoa, the NZ Society of Authors Chapbook, Interliq and The Guardian (UK).

Only a faint knot

betrays the bond:

the scar tissue

of a hard graft,

marrying the best

of shoot and root

to produce good

familiar fruit

from Apple & Tree