Debut author Patricia Parker battles mental illness with poetry.
Announcement posted by InHouse Publishing 11 May 2016
Release Date: May 2016
Book Title: Eve’s Odyssey
Location: Brisbane, Australia
Patricia Parker says herself that she has always had an ordinary life as a woman; one ensconced in the needs of family, of work, of her relationship with her faith. An ordinary life, until her mental health began to quickly deteriorate in the early 90s. Parker was working as a financial secretary for a Catholic college, comfortable with her place in the community, when the onset of manic depression and bipolar disorder started a battle that would see her find both her darkest, and her lightest.
Even her darkest days contained their own light, in that it was her mental illnesses that pushed Parker to write the poems in Eve’s Odyssey. Parker found access to a haunting, raw voice through her struggles, and this book is testament to that; a collection of verse that encompasses the many facets of Patricia Parker’s well-lived life.
For those who hail from Queensland, Patricia is hosting her book launch on Thursday the 16th of June at 10.10 am at the RSL Hall in Gager Street, Sunnybank. She encourages sufferers of bipolar and advocates of mental health like herself to come along, to be a part of lighting a flame under a growing community of supportive individuals in Brisbane.
Patricia speaks and advocates on behalf of mental illness sufferers, throughout Queensland at a range of libraries and events. Get in touch to book her for your next event.
Patricia says, “Each of you probably have discovered in your life things that have hurt you and you live through it. I found I could not live through it and after being admitted to a psychiatric ward I wanted to die. After many years of going to hell and back I discovered in myself the way to fight and I began to write poetry. I developed bipolar. I discovered in myself a search for truth. I discovered that women are wonderful human beings and have been denigrated for a very long time. This is my fight. A fight to have women recognised as being truly worthy to take their rightful place in the long history of mankind.”
http://www.patriciaparkerauthor.com/