‘This first book is packed with clear-eyed veracity, offers a shining resilience, personal insight and shared comfort…we are enjoined, a chorus.’ – Les Wicks

Few poets express the meeting of nature and emotion as tenderly as Susan McCreery. Her poems open with images of nature and draw the reader in to scenarios of such heartbreak and love it is at times hard to surface. The sparkle of a boy playing in the surf, the metallic sound of betrayal on a Greek island, the humidity of a summer’s night – part physical, part longing for what has been lost. Among these gentle poems are suggestions of violence, of politics, of alienation, all held in a lacuna, waiting for that southerly to bring the pressure down.

These perfectly formed microfictions provide glimpses into the everyday challenges of family life, relationships, ageing and loss. McCreery’s characters are typical humans – flawed, vulnerable, frustrating and frustrated. Told with empathy and wit and honed with a wordsmith’s skill, Loopholes makes us see ourselves and each other differently.

With illustrations by Bettina Kaiser

'To succeed, microfiction must combine efficiency of text with immediacy of imagery and neat narrative twists, all in a space small enough for a single reading. It's an artform that Susan McCreery shows a masterly command of.'Hilary Simmons, BOOKS + PUBLISHING

Shattered glass, shifting shadows – these insights into the psyche are both chilling and hilarious. Ernest Hemingway, eat your heart out.CARMEL BIRD, winner, 2016 Patrick White Literary Award

Ranging in length from a page to four lines, Susan McCreery’s vivid glimpses into diverse lives and situations will amuse, shock and inspire you.

EMERITUS PROFESSOR ELIZABETH WEBBY AM

Susan McCreery is a writer of insight and compassion who understands the complexities of human connection. Better than that, she is sharp, funny and unpredictable.

ALI JANE SMITH, Gala

Reading McCreery’s one-page stories is like being a kid holding a Whitman’s Sampler Box and trying to pick your favourite chocolate. Yum, gritty as pistachio. Yum, creamy as caramel. Of course, I had to devour all of them in one sitting.

JULIE CHEVALIER, Darger and his girls, Permission To Lie

‘This first book is packed with clear-eyed veracity, offers a shining resilience, personal insight and shared comfort…we are enjoined, a chorus.’ – Les Wicks

Few poets express the meeting of nature and emotion as tenderly as Susan McCreery. Her poems open with images of nature and draw the reader in to scenarios of such heartbreak and love it is at times hard to surface. The sparkle of a boy playing in the surf, the metallic sound of betrayal on a Greek island, the humidity of a summer’s night – part physical, part longing for what has been lost. Among these gentle poems are suggestions of violence, of politics, of alienation, all held in a lacuna, waiting for that southerly to bring the pressure down.

These perfectly formed microfictions provide glimpses into the everyday challenges of family life, relationships, ageing and loss. McCreery’s characters are typical humans – flawed, vulnerable, frustrating and frustrated. Told with empathy and wit and honed with a wordsmith’s skill, Loopholes makes us see ourselves and each other differently.

With illustrations by Bettina Kaiser

'To succeed, microfiction must combine efficiency of text with immediacy of imagery and neat narrative twists, all in a space small enough for a single reading. It's an artform that Susan McCreery shows a masterly command of.'Hilary Simmons, BOOKS + PUBLISHING

Shattered glass, shifting shadows – these insights into the psyche are both chilling and hilarious. Ernest Hemingway, eat your heart out.CARMEL BIRD, winner, 2016 Patrick White Literary Award

Ranging in length from a page to four lines, Susan McCreery’s vivid glimpses into diverse lives and situations will amuse, shock and inspire you.

EMERITUS PROFESSOR ELIZABETH WEBBY AM

Susan McCreery is a writer of insight and compassion who understands the complexities of human connection. Better than that, she is sharp, funny and unpredictable.

ALI JANE SMITH, Gala

Reading McCreery’s one-page stories is like being a kid holding a Whitman’s Sampler Box and trying to pick your favourite chocolate. Yum, gritty as pistachio. Yum, creamy as caramel. Of course, I had to devour all of them in one sitting.

JULIE CHEVALIER, Darger and his girls, Permission To Lie