Praise and Poems

Pauline Suett Barbieri’s first full collection, The Shirley Valentine Syndrome, was singled out for praise by amongst others, Brian Hinton in Tears in the Fence. – ‘Barbieri’s lime green cover painting of half human – half robots making love just hints at the surrealist exactitude.’ Its unique voicing makes one of the most important debuts in the last decade.

This latest collection, from which Tears in the Fence has already had a bite, takes slices of Francis Bacon to task and comically, critically, erotically fixates fables. Barbieri grafts the experience of one extraordinary painter’s experience of another for whose work her admiration knows few bounds even when she puts him through her own special kind of grinder.

‘She enjoys toying with imagery and language, creating otherness, relying on English’s many alternative meaning to, with nods and nudges, turn a smile. If the aim of the Oasis Broadsheets is to allow one to steep oneself, if briefly, in an author’s world…then they work. I will certainly look out for more of her work.’
Sam Smith – New Hope International Review