Family Instructions Upon Release

By Elizabeth Kirkby-McLeod

First published in New Zealand, this bestselling poetry collection charts the author's response to grief and loss after the death of her father to suicide. Armed with her own limited dictionary, Elizabeth wrote poems that are by turns mournful, angry, and searching.  The cumulative effect is surprising in its narrative drive and cathartic power.  Poetry New Zealand Yearbook 2021 said Elizabeth "writes with utter confidence, a master of craft and insight."

• Language: English
• Publisher: Elizabeth Kirkby-McLeod
• Release date: Mar 12, 2021
• ISBN: 9780473568313

Book preview

Family Instructions Upon Release cover image

Family Instructions

Upon Release

Elizabeth Kirkby-McLeod

This book is copyright apart from any fair dealing as permitted under the Copyright Act, and no part may be reproduced without permission from the publisher.

© Elizabeth Kirkby-McLeod 2019

Elizabeth Kirkby-McLeod asserts their moral right to be identified as the author of this book.

ISBN: 978-0-473-56831-3 (epub);

978-0-473-56832-0 (kindle)

Originally published by The Cuba Press Ltd in 2019.

Edited by Paul Stewart. Production assistance by Steffi Dryden.

Author photo by Hayley Tubb.

Cover image: Belief in the Shadows by Debbie Tubb, painted in response to reading Family Instructions Upon Release.

Twelve Angry Men flyer kindly provided by Sir George Grey Special Collections at Auckland Libraries — Ngā Pātaka Kōrero o Tāmaki Makaurau, from the Auckland Theatre Company collection.

For my mother, who endures

ACT 1

Examining the crime scene

Exhibit A

A book is before you, tagged

with the author’s name, Reginald

Rose. Twelve Angry Men, a Penguin

Classic. It’s a 2006 reprint.

I see, you’re confused. This, another

story (more true), uses the words

in a new order. By necessity

some are changed at the beginning

or the end. I admit, I slip in a separate

fact sheet. This bookmark is moving

merely through the pages. But it’s cover

to cover the classic. Stolen,

sold on to you, since I still don’t own

any original words to explain

our story, and all that will undo.

Two tickets to Twelve Angry Men

Audience, facing forward, on low chairs

appear to be on knees, bent