Author/Editor: Sandy Jeffs
Biography
 Sandy Jeffs was born in Ballarat and has a BA from La Trobe University. She has lived with schizophrenia and all its moods for over thirty years. She is a community educator who speaks to schools, universities and community groups about what it’s like to live with a mental illness. She has been published widely and is a prize-winning poet whose writing has been concerned with madness, domestic violence and the humorous antics of women who play midweek ladies’ tennis. Sandy lives with her friends and animals on the outskirts of Melbourne.
She is the author of the bestselling Poems from the Madhouse (1993; reprinted 2000, 2001), Loose Kangaroos (co-author, 1998), Blood Relations (2000), Confessions of a Midweek Lady: Tall Tennis Tales (2001), and The Wings of Angels: A memoir of madness (2004).
Her latest book is her autobiography, Flying with Paper Wings: Reflections on Living With Madness (2009).
News
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03 Aug 2010 Sandy Jeffs Shortlisted for Age Book of the Year
Sandy Jeffs has been shortlisted for the Age Book of the Year Award (non-fiction) for her autobiography, Flying with Paper Wings: Reflections on Living with Madness. Spinifex has published three collections of poetry by Sandy beginning in 1993 with the best-selling Poems from the Madhouse (now in its third printing). Blood Relations (2000) and The Wings of Angels: A Memoir of Madness (2004) followed. All of us at Spinifex congratulate Sandy Jeffs for this wonderful achievement. |
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12 Jul 2010 Media: Sandy Jeffs on The Conversation Hour
Listen in to ABC Melbourne or ABC local radio on Wednesday 14 July, 11am for Sandy Jeffs on the Conversation Hour. Or catch the podcast later. Sandy will also be a guest of the Melbourne Writers Festival Aug 27-Sep 5. |
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15 Dec 2009 A brave and beautiful book
Sandy Jeffs' memoir, Flying With Paper Wings: Reflections on Living With Madness got a great wrap in The Age a couple of weekends back. Reviewer Carmel Bird enthused: '...again and again the narrator comes back from the hell that lives in her own head - comes back with wit and grace and a kind of poetic flourish'.
To find out more visit Vulgar Press. |
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09 Oct 2009 Fifth annual World Matters forums, Eltham, Victoria
If the world matters to you, check out the fifth annual World Matters forums on October 17, 18, 19 and November 19 at Edendale Community Farm, Gastons Lane, Eltham. It celebrates essays, books and poems that ask questions about the world around us.
Spinifex author Sandy Jeffs will be there, along with Sophie Cunningham, Arnold Zable, Don Watson, Philip John Morrissey and many, many more.
Go to the Eltham bookshop's homepage to find out more information, or to download the 2009 program.
Bookings with payments are essential. Contact the Eltham bookshop with any queries or to make bookings.
ELTHAMbookshop
970 Main Rd, Eltham
Ph: 9439 8700
elthambookshop@bigpond.com |
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07 Oct 2009 Upcoming poetry events
Pages to Poetry: Sandy Jeffs at Readings
Come hear prize-winning poet Sandy Jeffs read from her latest work at the Readings event Pages to Poetry on Monday 12 October. Sandy will be performing along with two other Melbourne poets, Tom Petsinis and Claire Gaskin. The event is free, so rock on up, no need to book!
Pages to Poetry
Monday 12 October, 6.30pm
Readings Carlton
309 Lygon St, Carlton
Book launch for Flying with Paper Wings: Reflections on Living with Madness
A decade ago, Sandy Jeffs decided to retrieve records of her admissions to mental institutions under Freedom of Information access. She set the medical observations about this stranger who was herself alongside her own subjective impressions. It prompted her to begin writing her story – of being drawn into the underworld of madness and returning to tell the tale.
It is a compelling story, vividly evoking the experience of schizophrenia and the bizarre delusions. An engrossing and moving account, with an edge of black humour, it offers privileged insights into madness, as well as reflections on its causes and care.
Flying with Paper Wings: Reflections on Living with Madness
Book launch
Saturday 17 October, 3–5pm
Dante's
150–156 Gertrude St, Fitzroy |
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27 Apr 2009 Sandy Jeffs on Radio National
Listen to Sandy Jeffs on First Person, RN The Book Show: www.abc.net.au/rn/firstperson/stories/2009/2544520.htm |
Awards and Translations
Poems from the Madhouse, 1994 FAW Anne Elder Award
Poems from the Madhouse, 1994 Commended, Human Rights Award
Victorian Women's Role of Honour
Books published by, or available from, Spinifex
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