Penelope (P S) Cottier – January 29 2017

World Wetlands Day – February 2 2017

Penelope (P S) Cottier is a poet with a particular interest in the poetry of magic realism and fantasy. She worked as a university tutor, union organiser, lawyer and tea lady before becoming a full-time writer and holds a PhD from the Australian National University on images of animals in Dickens. Penelope was Australian Poetry’s inaugural online poet-in-residence and has been joint winner of the David Campbell Award. Her poem, ‘Heron’s formula’, was commended in the World Wetlands Day Poetry Prize. Penelope has co-edited an anthology of speculative poetry, The Stars Like Sand: Australian Speculative Poetry, with Tim Jones and her other publications include the poetry work ‘Selection Criteria for Death’ in Triptych Poets Issue Three, and a collection of short stories, A Quiet Day and Other Stories. Both her short story collection and The Glass Violin were highly commended in the Society of Women Writers Biennial Book Awards (NSW) and The Cancellation of Clouds was awarded second prize in the same awards in 2013.

The Glass Violin
Ginninderra Press, 2008; ISBN 9781740275255
‘This debut collection by Canberra poet, P.S. Cottier, is striking in its eclecticism. Nothing much escapes this poet’s perceptive eye; her world is crowded and busy, and her poems reflect on and respond to a wide range of mostly contemporary topics and ideas. These include, among many others, injustices (big and small), the marginalised and forgotten, environmental concerns, as well as the nag of the everyday such as how to dispose of a tea bag responsibly or how to take care of one’s teeth.’ – Moya Pacey, Cordite Poetry Review

The Cancellation of Clouds
Ginninderra Press, 2011; ISBN 9781740276955

It’s a fine line between reality and fantasy. These poems open up a world of atheistic angels, grammar obsessed fairies, depressive canned laughter, invisible cats and floating sheep. P.S. Cottier also touches on more traditional poetic concerns, such as death and music, in her lively and inventive language. ‘Cottier is an eccentric, and one who writes well.’ – Michael Byrne