SIARAD poetry and prose is Launched by Rachael Mead!

Sometimes reading nice things about me and my work can be challenging. I often blush when receiving compliments, do a foot shuffle, stare at a spot on the floor. It's taken me a week to be able to revisit the SIARAD launch speech that Rachael Mead delivered in Adelaide. I cried a little while listening to Rachael, partly because I didn't quite recognise myself in her words, and partly because I did. Rachael is such a brilliant, generous writer and I'd like to share a slice of what she articulated so well, echoing my feelings of what the team at Spineless Wonder/ES-Press publishing achieved in the making of this book, SIARAD.

"Look at this book. It may not be a garlic press but it is a metaphor. (You’ll get that when you read the first poem). This book is a piece of art in the way that Caroline Reid is an artist. The art resides not just in the poetry and prose. There is art in every detail of its being. The cover, the dimensions, the visual art, collage work and graphic design by Bettina Kaiser. The choice of font. The layout. The unique wording of the biography and acknowledgements. Every facet of this book has been deliberated over with a keen aesthetic eye and all these disparate elements come together to create one cohesive artistic object. Just as the poet, fiction writer, playwright, spoken word performer and videopoem-maker come together to make the astounding artist, Caroline Reid. It is truly brilliant work and I am honoured to declare SIARAD officially launched." - Rachael Mead.

At just 170 pages, SIARAD is a small book by some standards. But it's big in spirit and in art. It's a beautiful object to read and hold. I'm proud of it. And I'm not blushing.

Copies of SIARAD can be ordered through ES-Press, an imprint of Spineless Wonders.