It's shite being Scottish, so the Trainspotting line goes. And for a long time Ali Whitelock thought that too. Originally from Glasgow, she now lives an hour south of Sydney. Sure, she lives a fortunate life. Sure, the sun shines just about every day. Sure, the beach is only a ten-minute stroll away. So why then is this not enough for her? What is it that makes her heart ache for the Scottish wilds, the icy north wind, the horizontal rain, the Cairngorms, the Old Man of Storr, the best Indian food you will ever taste in your life, and supermarkets that reduce packs of twelve croissants to 5p at the end of the day? Sadly, she has yet to come up with a definitive answer. Ali spends her days writing, mentoring, applying SPF 50+, looking for her sun hat, fantasising about living in a windswept cottage in winter on the Isle of Skye, and shouting at the telly when the Liberals come on.
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'Despite the sorrow of its title, and my heart crumples like a coke can will have an utterly expansive effect on the reader's beat-box. My little heart almost burst as I read through this collection for the first time. And then the second. Like some classic 90s rom-com - or was it drama? - that you watched and then re-watched every weekend on VCR as a teen, Ali Whitelock's book seems to encourage a closeness, invites the reader to experience a genuine connection with the poet/protagonist and with their bevvy of sidekicks, both the heroes and the villains. I find myself genuinely touched by the liquid, visceral rawness, the careful simplicity and confessional glory of Whitelock's poems.' - Ivy Ireland, Cordite Poetry Review
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'As in a stand-up routine, these poems offer sharp social observation, frankness played for laughs and nourishing doses of swearing. And as with the best poetry, they refresh our language, pay homage to tradition as the generative source of art, and surprise and delight as wit slides into beauty or pathos … Whitelock's gifts to poetry are many. These include showing how poetry doesn't have to be written for a minority in order to be first-rate.' - KN, The Saturday Paper
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'I started reading and my heart crumples like a coke can on the train home last night and I just finished it this morning. I LOVED it. Especially, 'in kuntry where sun is never stopping shining'. I had tears streaming down my face (and again now as I write this). Beautiful, beautiful words, thank you for sharing them with the world.' - Lauren McWhirter, producer, ABC Sydney Evenings with Christine Anu
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'The evocative title and my heart crumples like a coke can struck a chord with me, and I knew I was going to enjoy reading Whitelock's poems … It is a slim book, easy to pick up, read, and return to again. My husband, who does not usually read poetry but happened to pick it up, has his bookmark at a different page to mine. We're taking turns reading.' - Helen Eddy, ReadPlus
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'Ali Whitelock writes a poetry of excoriating tenderness. These poems wake you. They are conversations with a better best friend than you ever had. One who lets you do all the talking and then picks up the cheque. … Whitelock is Bukowski with a Glaswegian accent and nicer wardrobe. She is Sharon Olds with better manners.' - Mark Tredinnick, author, poet and Montreal International Poetry Prize Winner 2011
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'The kind of poetry that I want to re-read even before I have finished reading it.' - Edward Crossan, poetry editor, Birlinn Books
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'An outstanding book of poetry. Intelligent but accessible. Down to earth stories but still poetic. Punk but still classy.' Daniel Watson, Dymocks Adelaide
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'You'll be stung and pierced and sad and bursting out in cackles on the bus as you laugh and drown in Ali Whitelock's wild ocean of crumpled coke cans, snobby bookshops, panic attacks and Borat mankinis. In these times when antipodean poetry is dominated by stay-in-line competition poets I find this collection by Ali Whitelock honest, invigorating and refreshing. I'm putting this book right on my top shelf of favourite poetry published in Australia.' - Dr Brentley Fraser
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'This is one of my favourite collections of poetry. These poems are conversations between Whitelock and herself, Whitelock and her peoples and places, Whitelock and you, the reader, but they are also, because of what is at the root of her poetry, conversations between you and yourself. Somehow, (I don't know how), she knows how to draw you completely into it all … I can say with total sincerity that I feel like I'm a better person for having read this brilliant book of poems.' - Edward O'Dwyer, Glasgow Review of Books
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'The poetry manages to be both pithy and almost hysterically funny, not an easy mix to achieve, but that is how life works: the paradox of what we carry and what we experience in each moment. Whitelock captures this duality perfectly, taking a stand-up comedian's incision to pretension and human foibles … and my heart crumples like a coke can reads very quickly, like confession, with a performative cadence that rings in the head as you read it, … but the poems are also self-referential, clever, carefully refined and condensed. The book is heart-wrenching and in ways I can't quite explicate, entirely affirming.' - Magdalena Ball, The Compulsive Reader
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'These poems are courageous, and often heartbreaking, sometimes laugh out loud funny, and reveal the strength of Whitelock's character.' - Wendy J Dunn, Other Terrain Journal
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'From Scotland to Australia, through relationships and operations, hospital bed visits - the spectre of loss, of new beginnings springing from bad decisions, and a subtle rage pulses through these pages. It's a fresh, real voice - brilliantly cynical and sentimental all at once. Whitelock's knife-edge walk through human emotions takes from both Bukowski and Mary Oliver but she makes from it, as any writer should hope to do, her own sound, her own world.' - Simon Sweetman, Off the Tracks
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'One of the wittiest, liveliest and most moving collections I've read in recent years. These poems are sassy, heart-wrenching and unforgettable. They evoke the best of Bukowski and Ginsberg while being the unique product of a contemporary female mind, a mind that is hilarious, provocative and - remarkable. Reading this collection made me feel like I was at a book festival, stand-up comedy night and therapy session all at once. Every poem is an event.' - Kevin MacNeil, author of The Brilliant and Forever
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'A poetry book with titles including: 'My friend's vagina', 'Ode to an ovary', 'Eventually you will turn fifty' and 'Please do not pee in the sink', gets my vote for book of the year!' - Leanne Neill, author of Blue Lotus
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'Just started reading and my heart crumples like a coke can by Ali Whitelock and it's amazing! I have laughed out loud and shed a tear already and I'm only 4 poems in. This is poetry I can enjoy and appreciate. At university we did the whole analysis to paralysis thing with poetry and I'll be honest, it put me off. Ali Whitelock, you have re-engaged me with poetry which is a lovely surprise. Thoroughly enjoying your wit and wisdom. Such skilled writing!' Catherine Alexandra, author of Dancing Through Fire