Dancing with Empty Prams – Susan Austin
Dancing with Empty Prams
Dancing With Empty Prams tells the story of a woman whose plan to have a baby carries her on a quest she never could have imagined. Jade, a health food store owner from Hervey Bay, enthusiastically embarks on a mission to get pregnant to her husband Patrick, a marine scientist. Facing unexplained infertility and IVF, her resolve, relationship, friendships, business, mental health and even her very life are put at risk. Six poems from the book won or were commended in state and national poetry competitions and nine featured in journals and anthologies, including the Australian Poetry Journal. Esther Ottaway said, “Dancing With Empty Prams is one of the most keenly observed poetry works I have read in recent years. It lays open the suburban life of a couple to expose the piercing, intimate, and intensely lonely experience of infertility. The experience for the reader is emotionally deep and gripping: it is a book which, as it progresses, becomes impossible to put down. Susan’s craft in this work is masterful, and the issues she raises, compelling and relevant.” Jane Williams described it as “A human-interest story that is genuinely moving, educational and at times downright funny.”
About the author
Susan Austin is a poet, eco-socialist activist and occupational therapist. She facilitates group programs, including a creative writing program, in a mental health clinic in Hobart. Her first poetry collection, Undertow, was published by Walleah Press, after being First Commended in the Best First Book category of the IP Picks 2011 competition. She was awarded an Australia Council for the Arts grant to work with Dr Gina Mercer on her verse novel, Dancing with Empty Prams, published by Walleah Press in 2023. Her third book – a poetry collection entitled Incandescence – will be published by Walleah Press in January 2025. Susan won the FAW Tasmania Poetry Prize in 2023 and 2021 and was Commended in the Woorilla Poetry Prize. She has judged the WILPF Eve Masterman Peace Poetry Prize, been featured on Radio National's Poetica program and has performed at many writers’ festivals. Susan has been widely published in newspapers and journals, including the Australian Poetry Journal and the Australian Poetry Anthology. She writes and publishes haiku, senryu, free verse and form poetry as well as book reviews, news articles and a verse novel. She blogs at www.susanaustinpoetry.com.au and can be found as Susan Austin Poet on Facebook.