Motherlode/ Carolyne Van Der Meer

Motherlode/Carolyne Van Der Meer

Just finished reading through Carolyne Van Der Meer's collection of poems and essays on life or childhood experience in the German occupied Netherlands during world war two. It is a selection that draws on both her mother's experience and a number of others as well and is more often than not a child's eye view on what it must have been like and one she captures so well. Difficult to put down once you start reading and one poem or essay leads effortlessly to the next and explores just about every avenue or slant and while it is a journey through other people's memories it is also something of a going home. Interesting end piece on the complexity of belonging and while they say you can never go back and there's a poem or two out there on that...well we always do. Beautifully produced, information on the book from the Wilfred Laurier University Press.

 www.wlupress.wlu.ca and available I would say from any good bookstore.

Also direct from Gazelle Book Services: tel 0044 (0) 1524 68765 

Email: sales@gazellebooks.co.uk priced at £16.99 sterling. ISBN 978-1-77112-005-0

The Meath Writers' Circle/ April 2014!

The Meath Writers' Circle/ April 2014!

The Meath Writers' Circle/ Castle Hotel Trim

About thirteen people turned out for the April meeting of The Meath Writers' Circle last Thursday night with more than a few stories and poems read and some discussion on where to from here or what the next project should be. Nothing decided as yet for the group, though one member is compiling and gathering poems for a launch planned later in September of this year. Congratulations to James Linnane who has a book of poems already on sale and details of this can be found if you click on the link over on the right."Bookchat Corner". The book is titled "The Potless Generation" and sounds just about right for the times we live in. Yet to get my hands on a copy! Also to pick up a copy of  "Boyne Berries 15" and have started to read my way into "Motherlode" by Carolyne Van Der Meer. available from all good bookshops as they say and published by the Wilfred Laurier University Press. Link at www.wlupress.wlu.ca and beautifully produced with photographs included. Will get back to all above in some order. 

Motherlode: A Mosaic of Dutch Wartime Experience

Motherlode: Carolyne Van Der Meer

The above titled is now available from the Wilfrid Laurier University Press and glancing over at Amazon they have a release date of the 17th of January priced at $16.32 so I hope those details are correct. Described as a creative reinterpretation through short stories, poems, and essays of the experiences of her mother and other individuals who spent their childhoods in Nazi-occupied Holland or were deeply affected by the wartime there the book also documents the author's own personal journey as she uncovers her mother's past through their correspondence and discussion and through research in the Netherlands. The book also considers mother-daughter relationships and the effect of wartime on motherhood.

Carolyne Van Der Meer is a Public Relations Professional and is a University Lecturer and readers of Boyne Berries will be familiar with some of her poems, having been published in a number of issues. I particularly liked  "Atonement" which was across the page from Michael Farry's "Road Trip" in Boyne Berries 11 and both of them had the same opening line. But then I sort of like road poems. I can't help thinking though nothing much has changed and in many parts of the world nothing  has changed at all but the Europe we were promised has turned out to be nothing more than the same old same old. A rich golden circle and the rest can go fend for themselves Hundreds of thousands of people or at least tens of thousands have been driven out of Ireland because of the crisis and you'd get knocked down by a horse box crossing the road and every time you get back up again there's another tax. Probably to pay for the box or the hundreds of millions they lost because of an accounting error. Anyway enough of that, info on the above can be had if you go to www.wlupress.wlu.ca . Give a read!

Motherlode/Carolyne Van Der Meer

Motherlode: A Mosaic of Dutch Wartime Experience.

From Google Images

The above titled by Carolyne Van Der Meer is described as a creative reinterpretation through short stories, poems, and essays of the experiences of her mother and other individuals who either spent their childhoods in Nazi-occupied Holland or were deeply affected by the wartime there,.Much more info about the book can be found here just type the details to the search box when it comes up. Carolyne has been widely published and some who are local may remember her when her poem "Atonement" was published in Boyne Berries 11. What was curious about that was that it had exactly the same first line as Michael Farry's "Road Trip" which was on the opposite page. And two very good poems they were! A curious thing about the period seems to be the absence of any really well known poems or poets that touch on the experience as opposed to those of the first world war and their more celebrated collections. Maybe there was an ideal they could hark back to. Maybe it's just me and I'm not familiar with it. Maybe these guys don't do poetry! The scene from "Cabaret" of the little boy on the box at the roadside cafe just about sums it up. The horror from the other side....I watched some of "Schindler's List" the other night and too few of him about. Nothing much was learned though, just turn on the news. Carolyne's book has a release date of January 2014. Check it out at WLU Press.