SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2026 ACT LITERARY AWARD FOR POETRYA stunning poetry collection from black&write! fellowship winner Dakota Feirer. In this breathtaking debut collection, Bundjalung and Gumbaynggirr man Dakota Feirer potently explores the legacy of generational trauma and the cultural wisdom of First Nations people. In a landscape of loss, his words act as both spear and shield. With dazzling imagery and rhythms inspired by lo-fi hip-hop, these poems confront the violence of colonialism that echoes still in the complexities of blak masculinity. Drawing on cultural memories sprung from stolen Country, bloodstained soil, broken promises and poisoned waterholes, Feirer's words roar and whisper as he gives voice to silenced histories. Arsenic Flower is a stunning mosaic of intimate poetry. These words are spears pointing toward truth and shattering the myth that we are all equal on stolen land. 'Dakota Feirer's writing carries the force of a lightning strike and the flow of an ancient river current. This collection is overflowing with rhythm, wisdom and urgency. A startlingly fresh voice.' JAZZ MONEY'A powerful, diverse, original and very heartfelt collection of poems.' JEANINE LEANE'With his award-winning debut collection, Dakota Feirer summons his Ancestors and yours. Expect to be haunted and held as you gather by the river for ritual, remembrance and reckoning.' KIRLI SAUNDERS'Dakota Feirer is a poet of great skill. Each work in this collection is a song, every line a layer of our sense of selves as Mob. Feirer is also a poet who respects those who have walked and written before him. I know this through his words.' TONY BIRCH'Precise, devastating and reverent, moving across subjects of colonial violence, cultural love and the many tender moments we make and share between each other' EVELYN ARALUEN'Tender and intimate . . . Feirer writes with a biting, subversive edge . . . clear in language and boldly creative in form' BOOKS+PUBLISHING'Exquisite, profound and deeply moving' VOGUE AUSTRALIA