Panel and reading at Queensland Poetry Festival, Brisbane, 5 June 2022 >

Hyperbole, Belinda Rule’s debut full length collection, contains the poems from the 2019 Anne-Elder-commended chapbook, The Things the Mind Sees Happen, as well as a careful selection of previous work spanning the past ten years. These are tender, funny poems about family estrangement, sexual violence, ageing and death.

Purchase from Recent Work Press

Praise for Hyperbole:

‘The hyperbole in this collection is in the whispered multitudes held in each recorded scene; earthy evocations of the ethereal. These poems, this gathered life, make beauty from even the darkest words and soaring possibilities from the spaces between them.’

Jonathan Green, editor Meanjin

‘Belinda Rule’s impressive debut collection showcases a singular poetic voice honed over decades of writings. Nothing escapes her keen eye – the mother, the father, the home, the heart – all are captured and pinned in Rule’s sharp dictums. These are human, journeying poems of wry observation, wit and feeling, taut with the tensions of latent violence which simmer beneath the surface of our seemingly ordinary, everyday lives.’

Eileen Chong, author A Thousand Crimson Blooms