In the Garden of Absence
with an Afterword by Michael Dylan Welch
Awarded the Mildred Kanterman Memorial Merit Book Award 2013 (3rd place, for books published in 2012).
From the judges commentary in Frogpond, the journal of the Haiku Society of America.
“A charming collection… This intersection of the past and present is within all of us, and Pierides mines it well. A very satisfying read.”
(Vol. 37: 1, p. 170)
From the back cover:
In the Garden of Absence takes you on a journey echoing the author’s childhood. Yet it does so in the context of adult concerns, uncertainties, and anxieties—as well as pleasures. This book explores the existential fear of loneliness, the many facets of absence, and glimpses a path towards bearing absence and being creatively alone.
“Readers of any book of poetry can assume that each poem has substantial personal meaning for the writer. The poems in this collection go one step further, offering personal meaning to the reader. Stella Pierides pays attention in simple ways (and sometimes vast ways) to her surrounding world, noticing the warmth of a hen’s eggs on Mother’s Day, that only a dog makes eye contact on a crowded train, or in observing the tiny dark holes in a pin cushion as she extracts its pins.”
From the afterword, “Presence in Absence”
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Book cover: From “Welsh Hill,” a painting by Maria Pierides
Book cover design: Maria Pierides and Rubin Eynon
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“I cannot recommend ‘In the Garden of Absence‘ by Stella Pierides highly enough. A great Afterword too by Michael Dylan Welch.
The book is entrancing.”
Sheila Windsor, Poet (UK)
Publication information:
Print edition:
The print edition is now available from this website: http://stellapierides.com (look for the PayPal buttons on the right hand side of the homepage)
and from Amazon.co.uk: http://www.amazon.co.uk
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ISBN: 978-3-944155-00-5 Paperback, 76 pages
– Published by Fruit Dove Press. Price: USD: 10.00 + p&p; GBP 6.50 + p&p; EUR 8.00 + p&p
e-editions:
e-editions are available from Smashwords (Apple iPad/iBooks, Nook, Sony Reader, Kobo, and most e-reading apps including Stanza, Aldiko, Adobe Digital Editions, others), PDF and kindle
ISBN: 9783944155012 e-book
– Published by Fruit Dove Press at Smashwords. Price: USD 5.99
For more information, please see here
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My work has been included in the following books:
“A Blackbird Sings: a book of short poems” edited by Kaspalita and Fiona Robyn, is now available on Kindle and will be available in print from the 1st of November 2012.
This book is the second anthology of ‘small stones.’ What is a small stone? “A small stone is a short piece of writing that precisely captures a fully-engaged moment.” It may or may not be a haiku, tanka, or other form.
The editors say:
“This is a book you can dip into and be nourished by again and again. It will surprise you, shock you, move you and delight you. It’ll remind you of the important sparkling details in your own life, and inspire you to pay more attention to what’s around you.”
Well, I can only say I am very excited to be part of this project! Buy the book! You will find yourself coming back to it again and again!
Did I say it includes two of my own short poems?
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140 And Counting is a collection of the best twitter literature from the first two years of the journal’s history, on relationships, nature, work, animals, seasons, science fiction and fantasy, and mortality: 141 clever little allotments of literature by 119 authors in 1 exquisite ebook!
One of my own vss is included in this anthology.
Pay Attention: A River Of Stones [Paperback]
Fiona Robyn (Author), Kaspalita (Contributor)
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One of my micro-poems is included in this anthology.
Derek, Leaf Books Anthology.
One of my stories is included in this anthology: The Miracle
The Leaf Books Micro-Fiction Competition 2007 was Leaf’s second stab at a micro-fiction competition and it proved no less successful than the first. Entrants were invited to submit ultra-short stories of no more than 500 words. There was no lower word limit whatsoever. The thirty-seven stories in this collection represent the pick of the litter. The subjects on which they discourse range from imaginary footballs to Viking funerals to naked astral-projection. The stories are brief and brisk and pointed and thirst-quenching, and reading them is kind of like being smacked in the face with a moistened sprig of mint
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Psychotherapy[Paperback]
Sasha Brookes (Editor), Pauline Hodson (Editor)
Karnac Books; 1st edition (May 2000)
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An article of mine is included in this book: .
Working Together: Aspects of a Therapeutic Container at Work
(Please scroll down)
The anthology, Dance the Guns to Silence celebrates the life, struggles and achievements of Nigerian writer and activist, Ken Saro-Wiwa with 100 poems from internationally known and award winning poets and laureates across the globe.
The title, Dance the Guns to Silence is taken from one of Saro-Wiwa’s own poems, ‘Dance’, with a foreword written by Ken Wiwa, Ken Saro-Wiwa’s son and editorial advisory from the renowned Malawian poet, now living in exile in Britain, Jack Mapanje.
One of my poems is included in this anthology.
Psychosocial Interventions in Psychosis
Edited by Joseph H. Berke, Margaret Fagan, George Mak-Pearce andStella Pierides-Müller
Number 7 in the Community, Culture and Change series
A major question facing therapists today is how to treat psychosis effectively while maintaining patients’ dignity, self-respect and, as far as possible, their psychological and social functioning. The authors of Beyond Madness have all been associated with the Arbours Crisis Centre in London, a unique facility established in 1973 where therapists and patients, or guests, live together in order to establish a space where extremes of distress can be tolerated, understood and ameliorated. This book provides important and engaging accounts of the special personal and interpersonal care offered by the Arbours Crisis Centre and kindred facilities. The authors demonstrate different ways of working with psychotic persons within individual, group and community settings. They describe the extraordinary experience of living and working at the Centre including the five stages of stay that guests invariably pass through. In addition, they discuss different strategies for intervening, especially with people who self-harm, and provide a theoretical framework for their interventions. They explore issues of power, authority and money, and show that the work of the Centre is cost-effective in comparison to other treatment modes. At a time when biological treatments predominate, Beyond Madness illustrates and argues for a humane, useful and cost-effective alternative to traditional, physical, psychiatric interventions. .
Even Paranoids Have Enemies: New Perspectives on Paranoia and Persecution [Paperback]
Even Paranoids Have Enemies: New Perspectives on Paranoia and Persecution Joseph H. Berke; Stella Pierides; Andrea Sabbadini; Stanley Schneider € 30.24 (+ VAT) Routledge; February 1998 248 pages; ISBN 9781134731541 Read online, or download in secure PDF format ‘Even paranoids have enemies‘ is the reply Golda Meir is said to have made to Henry Kissinger who, during the 1973 Sinai talks, accused her of being paranoid for hesitating to grant further concessions to the Palestinians. It is used as part of the title of this book to highlight the comlex relationship between paranoia and persecution. The book is divided into three sections. Section one addresses aspects of the complex psychological impact that experiences of external and internal persecution have on the individual. Section two brings together expositions on paranoid and persecutory processes in groups, institutions and bureaucracies. Section three discusses the social, political and cultural factors which give rise to these processes. The theoretical viewpoints introduced and discussed come to life in the political, social and historical arenas where the politics of the Middle East, the pressures of Japanese society and the dynamics of the drug scene are used to illustrate and understand the issues involved in paranoid thinking and in persecution. The authors’ perspectives, from psychoanalytic psychotherapy, psychiatry, politics, sociology, history and the arts, shed light on phenomena which are often taken for granted and show how our thinking on these matters has implications for social and ethical concerns and for clinical practice.
Stella Pierides 