‘For Mitch Cave, fire is not a lyric metaphor; it’s a devastating experience that poetry might merely help to ‘eat’, or process. Far from the mythology and misinformation about fire that circulates in non-Indigenous Australia, Cave’s poetry works from the senses, humour, and a projection of the self into a bigger picture among other people and species. Many of these poems are in love with the tides and colours of his home at Noosa Heads, as Cave pieces together his own ethos for feeling and thinking.

—Bonny Cassidy

Mitch Cave grew up in Noosa Heads, Queensland, and is a writer and performer currently based in Brisbane. His work has appeared in literary journals nationally as well as internationally. He works in the disability sector and is of English, German, Māori, Ukrainian and Polish family heritage.