'sifting fire writing coast' | ISBN 978 0 645797 701 | 98 pgs | September 2023
sifting fire writing coast, Elanna Herbert's debut poetry collection, achieves a vibrant, accessible, quality work
which engages current issues related to our physical and social environment.
Elanna Herbert's collection of free verse and prose poems is divided into themes ‘fire’,
‘sifting’ and ‘coast’.
'fire' – primarily reflects Elanna's lived experience of the
‘Black Summer’ 2019-20 bushfires. Her village of Lake Conjola in New South Wales was devastated
when the Currowan Fire broke containment lines on New Year’s Eve to destroy
over 110 homes, with the loss of three lives. Climate change destruction is a strong motif of poems in ‘fire’,
as is living through the aftermath of a catastrophic bushfire disaster.
'sifting' – these poems cover a longer time span and are, in essence, reflections of
a white, working class female growing up in southeast inland Australia and
engaging with other places in the world. Some of the sub-themes here contemplate
inequality, war, travel, love and death.
'coast' – poems reflecting life on the fringe of southern Australia’s coast.
Included are longer prose poem narratives of moving between the east and west
coasts. A sense of immersion exists in this group of poems, not just in the ocean, but
in coastal environments across disparate Australian regions. Environmental and
social concerns are engaged with in 'coast' as well.