Poetry. In her remarkable first collection, Ivy Alvarez's MORTAL examines the relationship between Dee and Seph -- modern-day reinventions of Demeter and Persephone -- and how the specter of breast cancer affects them. 'Mortal' spans years and personalities, giving voice to mother and daughter in poems that are both visceral ("they had to unzip me / to let the cat / out of the bag // blood bathed my belly") and quietly elegant ("how do I hold you / I wonder, as I'm holding you").

Ivy Alvarez wrote Mortal with the assistance of two Australian government arts grants. Her poetry appears in anthologies, literary journals and new media worldwide and online, with recent work appearing in The First Hay(na)ku Anthology, co-published by Meritage Press, California and xPress(ed), Finland. In 2006, she received a grant from the Australia Council for the Arts to write poems for her second manuscript. Ivy Alvarez is the recipient of fellowships from the MacDowell Colony and Hawthornden Castle. In addition to her poetry, she also writes plays, reviews and articles. Born in the Philippines, she grew up in Tasmania, Australia. She is currently resident in Wales, having spent six months in Scotland and a year in the Republic of Ireland.