Largely set between a main road and a watercourse in a residential-industrial suburb in Melbourne’s west, Taking Apart the Bird Trap is altogether haunting, unsettling and transcendent. Set in motion by the sudden loss of a father, Anastasi provides us a glimpse into the first and second generation migrant experience, the restlessness of domestic dysfunction, the transformative power of grief, and the defiance of love.
‘Taking Apart the Bird Trap is a profound meditation on loss and memory. It is true, uncompromising poetry that allows us to ‘feel the weight of a thing about to be free’. Amanda Anastasi’s new collection is a monumental act of metamorphosis, and the mark of a fully realised poetic voice. ‘
Robbie Coburn
‘In Taking Apart the Bird Trap, Anastasi has achieved a philosophical tone contributing to the thinking around the inevitabilities of life and death. This is masterly executed by evoking intimate specifics of relationships in all their fulfillment and failure. These poems leave the reader with the felt sense of the complexities of a finite life, held tenderly in the arms of all time.’
Claire Gaskin