mother bird by Sharon Zhang

mother bird is a poetry collection about the violent reifications and liminalities of femininity. Searching for a memory of girlhood that transcends space and time, mother bird sees the world as inextricably filled with a vivid and innate gorgeousness—smashed glass bottles are mistaken for stars, whiskey is suddenly ocean foam. These poems contend with the violence of the nation-state project and bodily survival, all the while seeking for the softness inherent to the world.

Sharon Zhang is an Asian-Australian, Melbourne-based poet and author. Her work has been recognised by HAD, GASHER, Rust + Moth, and elsewhere. She is a mentee at Ellipsis Writing and an editor at Polyphony Lit. She is a 2022 Foyle Young Poet of the year. Outside of writing, she enjoys collecting CDs, scrolling endlessly on her phone, and thinking about Hegel a touch more than that which is necessary. Find her on Instagram and Twitter, on her website sharonzhang.weebly.com, or taking pictures of curiously round pigeons in Melbourne Central.

“mother bird is a chapbook with a misleading softness: the violence, the antagonisms, the turmoils of being female-bodied, are all wrapped up in a perfect femininity of voice. Sharon Zhang is capable of a very specific type of writing: writing where we are constantly moving between two places, two ideas, two loves, two countries, two genders. Each poem is as delicate as it is urgent. Each line is its own little necessary exhalation. It is that necessity which makes these gorgeous streams of language so worthwhile.” —Jak Merriman, poet