Reliefs
by Jarad Bruinstroop

‘With brilliant precision, beautiful music and “rapier / wit”, Jarad Bruinstroop’s Reliefs illuminates the Queer male body, Queer identity, resilience and “joy”, and, in a series of resplendent ekphrases, Queer biographies. Even when attending to pain, the poems are generous, composed and full of heart. Throughout, they pulse with art’s transformative power.’

‘Reliefs is an electrifying debut from a serious talent. Jarad Bruinstroop’s incisive, minimalist lines throw Queer histories, intimacies and desires into relief, offering a powerful meditation on the gay male body as it appears throughout the history of art, and its exigencies and expression in the present. These tender, memorable poems pose complex questions about masculinities and aesthetics, yet they wear their erudition lightly, inviting the reader into a world where the imagined and the real collide, and bodies are often not what they seem. Bruinstroop is a thrilling and original new voice in Australian poetry.’

‘Bruised like fruit in a Caravaggio painting, the poems in this translucent collection map a history of desire, maleness, succulence. They accelerate or reverse or stop time. They make me a better reader.’

‘A deeply resonant collection of disarming intensity, tenderness and lyrical courage. Meticulously crafted, yet always spacious and accessibly complex, these poems capture queer experience, history and art in a voice that always feels trustworthy and lucid. Bruinstroop is able to meld the personal and the political without a trace of didacticism. Reliefs is a consummate collection, put together with an immense amount of care. It is a delight to read and each reading brings new rewards.’