Dressing for the Cannibals poetry book harks back to Bay experiences
Frankie McMillan's new book, 'Dressing for the Cannibals'
Ex-Parapara Valley resident and writer Frankie McMillan (earlier known as Heather Harris) is now based in Christchurch, but her recently published first poetry collection, Dressing for the Cannibals (Sudden Valley Press), contains several poems that hark back to Golden Bay, touching on relationships and harvest blues brought about by an Iroquois.
The collection was launched on 20 August as part of Christchurch Central Library’s 150 celebrations. It’s written in the same sharp style as her collection of short stories, The Bag Lady’s Picnic (Shoal Bay Press), which came out to widespread critical acclaim when it was published in 2001. As shown in her prose, Frankie shows a compassionate eye for the eccentricities of human life and nature, as well as exercising a sly and subversive wit. The picture on the cover of the book was painted by Frankie’s daughter, Rebecca (Bunny) Harris.
After leaving the Bay in 1999, Frankie McMillan studied towards a MA in creative writing from the International Institute of Modern Letters at Victoria University, which she achieved with distinction. She held the Creative NZ Todd Bursary in 2005. She is currently a creative writing tutor at Hagley Writers Institute and the Christchurch Polytechnic Institute of Technology. She still owns her land and house up the Parapara Valley and returns to holiday every summer.
Interestingly, one of the poems from the book, Developing my Father (below), is now being distributed nationwide by Phantom Billstickers Ltd, a Wellington-based company set up and run by Jamey Holloway, who grew up in Rainbow Valley Community at Anatoki. Jamey’s business is now this country’s leading street media distributor, specialising in designing, producing and slapping up posters and flyers for a wide range of clients, from pop bands to Chamber Music NZ. The poetry initiative by Phantom Billstickers will see a splurge of poems by both New Zealand and American poets plastered up as A1 posters on the streets of 13 New Zealand cities, as well as in Nashville, Tennessee, where the company is also active. The poems will change monthly and the project will run for six months.
Dressing for the Cannibals is available from Sudden Valley Press, 6 Soleares Ave, McCormacks Bay, Christchurch 8081, or canterburypoets@gmail.com
Books are available in city bookshops or direct from Sudden Valley Press by emailing canterburypoets@gmail.com
Gerard Hindmarsh
Developing my father
My father has been enlarged
in a Sydenham photo shop
specialising in reproductions
And silver fish repair. He walks
With my mother down Hereford
Street. She wears a hat and tender
gloves, he wears a striped shirt,
the collar splayed like the wings
of his RSA badge. There is a war
to put behind them, shopping
to do, hungry mouths to feed.
The street photographer shoots
them wide eyed under a white sky.
For years he stores the negatives,
My mother and father
holding hands in the dark.
Frankie McMillan
