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SMALL BOOKS
GOING BIG PLACES
SMALL BOOKS
GOING BIG PLACES
Somewhere a poet
is cleaning a bathroom.
Somewhere a cleaner
is writing a poem.
Rachel McAlpine
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
Distributor: Nationwide
Format: Pb 174 pp
ISBN: 9780473547134
Email: books@nationwidebooks.co.nz
$25.00
Adrienne Jansen, Te Rongomai Tipene-Matua, Joan Begg, Wesley Hollis, Nicky Subono
During the Covid-19 pandemic, we’ve all been thinking about essential services. Including cleaning. Cleaning is universal.
It’s steeped in tradition and culture. It’s essential, it’s ordinary and it’s surprisingly poetic.
Somewhere a cleaner captures the spirit, the highs and the lows, of this occupation that often falls below the radar. The poems range across hospitals, offices, marae, clocks, schools, boat hulls, sneakers and more.
The poets themselves, a mix of novice and established writers, are equally diverse.
Through songs, rhymes, deeply insightful poems and poignant small stories, this anthology gives a voice to a profession both invisible and indispensable.
“Having walked the corridors of hospitals for more than a few years, I can tell you that cleaners can sometimes be the best doctors of all. And now I find they can write some great poems too. This book is wonderfully democratic. The art here is in the work done before and beyond the writing. The endless picking up, mopping, smoothing and shining. And always, it seems, for someone else. These are poems with strong forearms. My deepest congratulations to every poet in this collection – and my long overdue thanks. I will never walk on a neatly mopped floor again.”
– Glenn Colquhoun
“Whether it’s cleaning hotel rooms, hospitals, offices or their own homes, the people in this book write candidly about their experiences and offer up much in relatability. After all, as the book’s blurb states upfront, ‘cleaning is universal’ as much as it is personal …The voices collected here remind us that cleaning isn’t just good for our health—sometimes it can be good for our soul.”
– Chris Tse, Landfall
Review in Tui Motu Issue 259, May 2021
Cleaner Boy Re-verse column May 2021
Mohan Singh on Somewhere a cleaner with Jesse Mulligan
Mele Peaua in the Dominion Post
Anna Dolan on Somewhere a cleaner in the Gisborne Herald
Hawke’s Bay Today with Melissa Puna, Jeremy Roberts, Anthony Tipene-Matua
Adrienne Jansen in Flash Frontier Dec 2020
Nelson Mail Annika Ohlson-Smith
Somewhere a cleaner in Takahē magazine
Seven Sharp: Cleaners try their hand at poetry in new book collection
Somewhere a cleaner in Otago Daily Times
A community of diverse voices in Hooked on Books
$25.00
Somewhere a poet
is cleaning a bathroom.
Somewhere a cleaner
is writing a poem.
Rachel McAlpine
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
Distributor: Nationwide
Format: Pb 174 pp
ISBN: 9780473547134
Email: books@nationwidebooks.co.nz