The Bee Hut
Known for her passionate, sensual and edgy poetry, Dorothy Porter was one of Australia's truly original writers. She was twice short-listed for Australia's premier literary award, the Miles Franklin, and her verse novel The Monkey's Mask is a modern Australian classic.
The Bee Hut, her fifteenth book, brings together the poems she wrote in the last five years of her life. By turns expansive and intimate, effusive and contemplative, these poems roam widely: there are journeys into history and to sacred places both mythic and deeply personal. As Andrea Goldsmith writes in her preface, Porter's writing "glows and shimmers" with passionate curiosity and exuberant love of life.
“Moving and powerful...it shows all of Porter’s strengths.” – Age
“Her imagery is fresh and acute...one is very aware of the intellect at work here” – Sydney Morning Herald
“It’s hard not to be uplifted by this writing and this woman” – Courier Mail
“An expansive and satisfying experience.” – Bookseller and Publisher
Dorothy Porter is an acclaimed poet, lyricist and librettist. The Monkey's Mask won the Age Poetry Book of the Year Award and the National Book Council's Poetry Award and has been reprinted eight times. Both Wild Surmise and What a Piece of Work were shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Award. Her last verse novel, El Dorado, was shortlisted for the Prime Minister's Literary Award. Her work has been adapted for radio, stage and screen. In December 2008, Dorothy Porter died aged 54. She had just completed The Bee Hut.
