Fruits of Exile by Maggie Shapley
Fruits of Exile by Maggie Shapley

$19.95

Fruits of Exile

Maggie Shapley’s new collection Fruits of Exile explores the theme of exile through a fictional book group brought together to discuss the works of Australian poets Gwen Harwood and Margaret Scott–‘literary exiles’ in the male-dominated spaces of Australian poetry in the latter half of the twentieth century.

Through this lens, Shapley weaves a poignant tapestry of women’s lives shaped by migration, memory, and resilience. Through the voices of seven women in a Canberra book club, these poems trace journeys of emigration, marriage, motherhood, and self-discovery. Each poem is a window into moments of loss, longing, and quiet triumph—whether in the ache of distance, the rituals of domesticity, or the search for belonging. With lyrical clarity and deep empathy, Shapley’s collection invites readers to reflect on what it means to leave, to stay, and to find home in unexpected places.

In stock (can be backordered)

August 2025 82 9781763670198 , , ,
Share

Meet The Author

Maggie Shapley

" … like a passenger hovering above a glittering city in a holding pattern, waiting for clearance. I walk out on the street and feel warm rain like permission on my face."
Proof_Cov_Final
Add to cart

Proof

$14.95
By

From the opening poem of Maggie Shapley’s first collection Proof, we know we are in the company of a thoughtful, sometimes restless, poet. Here, in explorations of childhood and family, memory and loss, belonging and dislocation, we find every word conveying a powerful sense of lived encounters and experience. This is poetry characterised by close observation, a restrained wit and a fine precision of language.

Add to cart

Maggie Shapley’s new collection, Fruits of Exile, explores issues of personal identity and self-realisation as it dramatises a fictional book club’s discussions of the work of Australian poets Gwen Harwood and Margaret Scott—‘exiles’ in the male-dominated spaces of twentieth-century Australian poetry.

Through the voices of seven women, Shapley’s volume speaks powerfully of women’s lives shaped by memory and resilience as her poems trace journeys of emigration, marriage, motherhood and self-discovery. Each poem opens moments of loss, longing or quiet triumph—invoking the ache of distance, the rituals of domesticity and various notions of belonging. With lyrical clarity and deep empathy, Shapley invites readers to reflect on what it means to leave, to stay and find home in unexpected places.

‘In a patterning of voices, and with shafts of lyric observation, these poems confront women’s literary exile and their capacity to both resist and create despite the confines of society.’
Jen Webb

‘Captivating and deeply resonant, Maggie Shapley’s Fruits of Exile, blazes with poetic intensity. In finely executed poems, she pays homage to Australian women poets. There is “magic power …sparking” in Shapley’s second collection of poetry.’
Cassandra Atherton