pressed specimens - prose poems from the Southern Cross Plant Science Herbarium

"Moya Costello's highly inventive writing in pressed specimens engages imaginatively with the global herbarium tradition predicated on the conservation of pressed plant specimens. Dense and fecund, much like scientific description itself, her prose poetry alchemises multisensory impressions of - and empathetic identification with - pressed plants with the technical lexicon of botanical classification. Her, at times, playful writing brings specimens to life through an appreciation of plants' medicinal, healing, ecological, and relational virtues. Images of pressed flora from the Southern Cross Plant Science Herbarium anchor the poet's creative process in the scientific realm, signifying poetry's capacity to transgress long-standing disciplinary boundaries. Costello's work joins other phytopoetic classics with this absorbing collection of prose poems." John Charles Ryan: poet; Adjunct Associate Professor, Southern Cross University; Adjunct Senior Research Fellow, Nulungu Institute, Notre Dame University. Books include The Mind of Plants (Synergetic, 2021, with M. Gagliano and P. Vieira). "Through the vehicle of ecocritical prose poetry, Costello's work distils the knowledge and experience of art and science in a truly unique way. Her words dance on the tongue - they have exquisite mouth-feel, they touch and taste like nothing I have ever spoken, drunk or spat." Grayson Cooke: media artist, Associate Professor of Media at Southern Cross University and founding member of LabX. Exhibitions include Blinman Slag (Lismore Regional Gallery, February-April 2020). "Alongside images of plants that surrendered themselves to their colonial flattening, Moya Costello's poetry deftly evokes their lives and liveliness. In the traditions of Peter Larkin and Louise Crisp, and with echoes of Gerard Manley Hopkins, Costello creates a lush language, melding close observation with inventive conjunctions of imagery, in relationship with the plants themselves." Anne Elvey: poet, Adjunct Research Fellow, School of Languages, Literatures, Cultures & Linguistics, Monash University. Books include Obligations of Voice (Recent Work Press, 2021). Praise for Costello's other books: John Hanrahan, The Age on Small Ecstasies: "There is wit, irony and comedy in the writing, but also an assured seriousness and high intelligence". Katherine England, The Advertiser, on The Office as a Boat: "The writing is beautifully clear and visually precise". Nicholas Jose, Sydney Review of Books.

About the Author :
Moya Costello has two collections of short creative prose and two short novels published (Kites in Jakarta, and Small Ecstasies; The Office as a Boat, and Harriet Chandler). She has critical and creative work in scholarly and literary journals and anthologies, and exhibition catalogues. She taught writing in the School of Arts and Social Sciences, Southern Cross University for nine years, and the School of Business and Tourism for five. She has been awarded Australian federal and state government writing grants and fellowships, has been a guest at the Adelaide, Sydney, Melbourne, Bellingen, Yamba, Gold Coast, and Bryon writers festivals, and judged many writing competitions. She has also taught writing at Flinders, Canberra and Adelaide universities and been a Writer-in-Residence, Churchill Campus, Monash University. She has a PhD in creative writing from the University of Adelaide. She wrote this collection while living in the hinterland of Bryon Bay (traditional lands of the Bundjalung nation), and teaching writing at SCU as a lecturer, adjunct, and member of LabX, SCU's Environmental Arts and Humanities research cluster. pressed specimens was longlisted for the Laurence Sterne Prize. She currently lives on the lands of the Punnilerpanna/Palawa people (north coast of Tasmania, Australia). W www.moyacostello.com T @moya_costello I moyacostello_writer F facebook.com/MoyaCostelloWriter