Anthology (n.) a collection of flowers - Poetry Book

We are delighted to present Gail Ingram's new poetry collection, from Pukeko Press - named "anthology (n.) a collection of flowers"

"anthology (n.) a collection of flowers" displays local writer Gail Ingram’s multiple talents and expertise and is aesthetically beautiful. The playfulness of her words, the skilful layering of ideas, her verbal trickery, are woven through with intense emotion. Many poems convey stories that together create a life. Others show Ingram’s closeness to nature and the similarities in the life cycles of humans and plants. Readers will learn about some of our lesser-known native flowers and take pleasure in the natural world of Aotearoa New Zealand via the lens of poetry. 

Over eighty coloured botanic photographs accompany the poems in "anthology (n.) a collection of flowers". These have been taken mainly by Gail Ingram while tramping Aotearoa New Zealand’s mountainous tracks. 

Dimensions: 165 x 230mm; 115 pages

Gail Ingram is an award-winning writer, creative-writing teacher and editor from Ōtautahi. "anthology (n.) a collection of flowers" is her third collection. Her sell-out second collection, Some Bird, was released in 2023. Winner of both Caselberg Poetry Prize and NZPS International Poetry Competitions, her poetry and short fiction have appeared widely across Aotearoa and around the world in publications such as Poetry Aotearoa, Landfall, The Spinoff and Cordite Poetry Review. 

In this most recent book, the genre of poetry goes beyond the traditional by including many coloured illustrations and interesting text layout. It is wide-ranging in its themes of social and natural history and the complexities of living in Aotearoa in the 21st century. At the same time it taps into a long tradition of nature poets, such as Emily Dickenson, William Wordsworth and Robert Frost. 

‘Gail Ingram’s 'anthology’ is part field guide to the plants of Aotearoa New Zealand, part personal history, and part fantastic coming-of-age-novel, distilled to its essence as only poetry can be,’  says JOANNA PRESTON (poet, editor, winner of the Ockham NZ Book Awards). 

ALISON GLENNY (poet, author of Bird Collector, winner of Kathleen Grattan Award and longlisted for the Ockham Award in 2022):  'The collection’s focus on native plants naturally leads towards topics of colonisation, place and belonging. Similarly, the multiple names given to plants (in Te Reo Māori, botanical Latin and vernacular English) point to their position within contrasting systems of knowledge … [T]he poems are centred on Ōtautahi and, in particular, the poet’s home in the Heathcote Valley. Forsaking the scientific reluctance to anthropomorphise, Ingram unashamedly gives voices to the plants in her collection, matching their distinctive adaptations and distinguishing features to human concerns and personalities. The metaphorical contribution that flowering plants make to our lives is acknowledged by the division of the collection into five parts named for parts of their lifecycle — ‘Roots’, ‘Breathing Light’, ‘Flowering’, ‘Going to Seed, ‘Regeneration’.' Truly, this is a book that will "nourish the soul, delight the eye and stimulate the imagination'.

This book was written and published in NZ