Navigating the world, inheriting the gender of woman, feeling more or less comfortable with that, trying to find the ways in which the word is inhabited and where it slips away; wondering where the domestic bleeds into the public; whose place is where and what are the rules? These questions form the basis of Do you have anything less domestic? The poems within whisper quietly behind closed doors at night; take trips out into daily life with a sharp eye and worried tongue; tease at generalities and assumptions about what a woman’s body of work is, what it does, how it looks, reads and feels. The collection is structured into five sections that each take one of these utterances as their heading (each said to or about the author at one time): Do you have anything less domestic; Don’t write about your family, nobody cares; It's important to keep up weight bearing exercise; You have a nice smile, you should use it more; I hope I won’t put anyone off by saying this is genuinely feminist work. The poems move from the intimate and domestic, through family and social themed works, and out to broader themed pieces that are overtly feminist in how they interrogate language, content and form.

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'Individual, staunch, and always engaging, Emilie Collyer’s Do you have anything less domestic? is the work of years, and its publication will bring a strong new voice into Australian poetry.' – Lisa Gorton

Published in 2022 by Vagabond Press.

This book was developed via a Varuna Publisher Introduction Program with Giramondo. Cover image by Daisy Noyes. Huge thanks to every person who donated to the fundraising that has made the publication of this and four other new titles possible! Check out (and buy) the new books by Misbah Wolf, Suzanne Verrall, Peter Boyle and Luke Fischer

Brian and Wendy are going up.

Not in a vulgar way. It’s an ecological design, and soon they’ll be able to see out across the whole city. But there’s a crack growing in the wall and a foul stench seeping out. Worried about what the neighbours are saying they’ve invited everyone around for a BBQ to toast the future.

The past, however, has found its way onto the guest list.

As the old flames and rogue spirits of this prime neighbourhood come snooping around with a bottle of bubbles and yet another potato salad, the night comes completely off its hinges. Brian and Wendy must reconcile their middle class aspirations against war stories, comedic roasts, fallen stars and simmering libidos.

Dream Home is a penetrating and hysterical comedy about suburban life and the rude awakenings that come when you’re trying to hold it all together.

Written by Emilie Collyer (The Good Girl, Once Were Pirates) and shortlisted for both the Patrick White Award (2013) and Edward Albee Scholarship (2012), Dream Home received seven Green Room award nominations, winning best direction and best sound design.

Australian Script Centre