Erin Shiel

Erin Shiel’s poetry is inspired by art, empathy and the impact these have on identity and daily life. Erin has had poems published in journals and anthologies such as Mascara, Meanjin, Cordite and Australian Love Poems. Her work has been shortlisted for the University of Canberra's Vice-Chancellor's Poetry Prize (2018) and the Blake Poetry Prize (2008). In 2022 she won the South Coast Writers Centre Poetry Award. She has worked in the health and community sectors, particularly in cancer prevention and early detection as well as in support services for children and families. She has a Master of Public Health, a Master of Arts in Literature and a Master of Arts (Research) from the University of Sydney. She is currently training to be a counsellor in the Master of Counselling program at the University of Notre Dame and is enthusiastic about the role of creativity and poetry in therapy. She lives with her partner and the youngest of her four sons on Gadigal land in Newtown, Sydney.

Author's books

Girl on a Corrugated Roof

$19.95

Erin Shiel’s debut collection brings together insightful vignettes about the arc of maturity to womanhood, exploring kindness, grief and the neglected beauty of everyday life. The collection slips through multiple identities, interleaving ekphrasis with lyric and nature poems. The effect is a dynamic tension between fiction and truth, invention and autobiography. Many of the poems, imbued with nostalgia, reclaim the liminality of girlhood, as an opportunity to form identity. A ghost girl character appears guiding the reader through the sections of the collection, with poems related in turn to the themes of girlhood, identity, finding mettle and contemplating nature. With whimsy and playfulness, emotional insight and nuance, Girl on a Corrugated Roof uses empathy and the natural environment to draw art out of the gallery and into our everyday lives.

New in 2023Featured

2023 Editions

$240.00

Get all fifteen of our new poetry collections released as they are released 2023

Featuring new work by:

April
Nathan Shepherson, Sandra Renew
May
Ally Chua, Alvin Pang & George Szirtes
June
Erin Shiel, Owen Bullock
July
K A Nelson, Martin Dolan
September
Es Foong, Brendan Ryan, Thabani Tshuma
October
Jennifer Allen, Brent Cantwell
November
Jen Webb, Kerry Greer