Blood Relations

Sandy Jeffs is a Melbourne poet who has published five volumes of poetry and a memoir. Her first book Poems from the Madhouse was awarded second place in the FAW Anne Elder poetry prize 1994. Her memoir Flying with Paper Wings: Reflections on Living with Madness was shortlisted for the 2010 Age Book of the Year, named SANE Book of the Year 2010 and was commended in the 2010 Human Rights Awards. She has lived with schizophrenia and all its moods since 1976. Sandy has been a public loony for many years presenting as a human face for this often misunderstood condition. She lives with her friends and animals in a place where it's Christmas every day.

Sandy Jeffs poems inhabit the darkness at the heart of the dysfunctional family. The ravaged emotionality of these poems will speak to anyone who has felt its pain. Doris Brett"