Bøker av Shannon Bramer

"A collection of poems that explore childhood experiences--from the whimsical to the poignant--by Shannon Bramer, with magical art by Irene Luxbacher. Shannon Bramer's follow-up to her much-loved poetry book Climbing Shadows is a collection of poems that explore a range of childhood experiences. Many poems reveal what it feels like to be a child--to pretend and dream and play with abandon, as well as to hurt and regret and feel sorrowful. The poems are varied in form, and while some are simple and direct, others invite children to see the potential for play and discovery in words and language. In the opening poem a child welcomes their newborn sibling, while the last poem is a surreal lullaby. In between we find poems about a child who listens to a toad, who feels left out, who loves the beach, who must practice piano, who accidentally breaks their mother's favorite plate, who doesn't want to eat their lunch, whose pet budgies have died, who visits their father on weekends, and more. Readers young and old will see themselves in these beautifully illustrated poems--a collection full of laughter, tears and wonder."--

With an introduction by Sara TilleyFrom playwright and poet Shannon Bramer comes Trapsongs, a collection of three dark comedies that navigate the realm of the surreal and absurd.In "Monarita," an intimate friendship between Mona, a frazzled new mother, and Rita, her beloved, estranged friend, is explored. Their interaction is a dance--part ballet, part mud-fight. In "The Collectors," Hanna Parson is being harassed by three ghastly collection agents who force her to confront her debt and isolation as she struggles to create meaningful art in her dishevelled apartment. And in the tragicomedy "The Hungriest Woman in the World," Aimee, a former artist, invites her preoccupied, workaholic husband, Robert, to the theatre to see a play about a sad octopus. His refusal sends her on a dark and playful journey into the topsy-turvy world of theatre itself.Trapsongs is by turns comedic, grotesque, and profane, but is all the while a tender exploration of the human condition in all its hilarious and humbling glory. Although each of these plays is a discrete creation, they contain and hold each other like a Matryoshka doll; all of the main characters are trapped within the song of their own lives.

Precious Energy, the fourth collection of poetry from Hamilton-born poet and playwright Shannon Bramer, is a uniquely playful collection of vibrantly sad, peculiar, and often funny poems about domestic life, motherhood, and the baffled child that remains within us all even as we grow up and into whatever person we keep trying to become. Featuring a coterie of subjects, from fish sticks and LEGO pieces to mothers too tired to have sex and solitary swans in everyone's basement, these poems dexterously navigate a landscape of domestic isolation, insecure attachments, and confused personal boundaries with honesty and unexpected humour.