12 June 2012
Entering The Sunlit Zone
RMIT University Creative Writing teacher Lisa Jacobson's verse novel, The Sunlit Zone, has just been released by Five Islands Press.
Lisa Jacobson.
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The manuscript was shortlisted for the 2009 Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards, the judges describing it as “a moving elegy of love and loss, admirable for its narrative sweep and the family dynamic that drives it. A risk-taking work of rare, imaginative power”.
The novel presents a futuristic vision of Melbourne in 2050, featuring the themes of cloning, designer babies, extinction and the impact of science and technology on our daily lives.
It also explores the topic of trauma and transformation, the process of moving through grief into another register of feeling.
The Sunlit Zone takes its title from the shallows of the ocean where most marine life grows, and was inspired by a short poem Dr Jacobson wrote while taking a scuba diving off the coast of the Red Sea.
“The poem seemed to hold something bigger,” Dr Jacobson said, “and it just kept on growing until it became a book.”
A verse novel is challenging to write because the narrative gallops forward while the poetry reins it back.
But it is also a book that can be enjoyed by those who are not in the habit of reading poetry because it has such a strong storyline.
Dr Jacobson teaches creative writing in RMIT’s School of Media and Communication. She was also a senior lecturer with RMIT's Professional Writing and Editing program for seven years.
Her poetry and fiction has been published in London, New York and Australia. Her work is represented in Heineman’s Best Short Stories (UK), The Oxford Book of Modern Australian Verse and The Best Australian Poems 2010.
She was recently awarded the 2011 Bruce Dawe National Poetry Prize and an Australia Council grant to work on her next book.
The Sunlit Zone was launched at Readings Bookstore in Lygon Street, Carlton, by the Melbourne poet Chris Wallace-Crabbe.
The book can be purchased at http://fiveislandspress.com
The Sunlit Zone.
