In the constellation of the crab Book

Here, with heightened intensity and greatly augmented range, are the strong themes which have already distinguished Doris Brett's poetry: flight, light, magic, and metamorphosis. Of especial power are her haunting lyrics about cancer and the all-too-real operating theatre; but her re-inventions of the old fairytales are also marvelous. Hers is the flashing, compacted, restless imagination which somehow always knows that "we are in the giant's kitchen." "The cancer poems were my journal - I wrote my way through the experience. Their essence has been the transformation of a life-threatening experience, with all its pain and terror, into something illuminating and transcendent. I see it as a companion for the journey." Poems in this book have won the following awards: 1995 Northern Territory Premier's Poetry Award (Red Earth Award), 1994 Queensland Premier's Poetry Award, 1994 and 1990 Fellowship of Australian Writers John Shaw Neilson Award.