We are past the halfway mark of the year – how on earth did that happen? – and…we have another title for bookclub! I’ve had a few delays on my end with Real Life stuff, so I’m sorry this post is a bit late, but the wait will be worth it, I promise 🙂
One of the things I love about bookclub (and YA itself) is the incredible variety of forms – in the last nine months, we’ve read Illuminae, which played with multi-form texts and graphics, How To Be Happy, a YA memoir, and Notes from the Teenage Underground, which highlighted where YA has come from. And for this month, we have something special – a book which is a long-form poem.
I’m delighted to announce that this month’s title is RUBY MOONLIGHT by Ali Cobby Eckermann, as selected for us by last month’s author, Ambelin Kwaymullina (THE INTERROGATION OF ASHALA WOLF). Ali Cobby Eckermann was born on Kaurna Country and grew up on Ngadjuri country between Blyth and Brinkworth in mid-north South Australia. Her first book of poetry Little Bit Long Time was published in 2009, followed by His Father’s Eyes in 2011.
Told in verse, RUBY MOONLIGHT is a story of hope and hardship as Ruby, the survivor of a colonial massacre in 1880s South Australia, finds shelter in the bush and develops a friendship with an outcast Irish trapper. RUBY MOONLIGHT won the Kuril Dhagun Indigenous Writing Fellowship, was named the Book of the Year in the 2013 NSW Premier’s Literary Awards, and won the Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry. Ali Alizadeh in Overland declared, “This story would have been sufficiently engrossing had it been written in generic, narrative prose, but in Cobby Eckermann’s sparse, haunting verse, the tale comes to life with musicality, vivid nuances and emotional resonance.”
Although I love poetry, I don’t read verse novels nearly often enough, so I’m looking forward to reading this one. I’ll be ordering it through our usual bookseller, Boomerang Books, and you can too – and remember, if you want to get free shipping, use the ‘loveoz’ code at the ‘use promotional code’ section of the form.
Hope you enjoy this month’s book, and see you for the upcoming Q&A over at our Facebook page.
xxEllie