Poet Rhian Gallagher's latest collection Far Flung takes us from South Island bush to Dunedin's notorious Seacliff Mental Hospital.
She also reflects on the many challenges facing Irish migrants who came to New Zealand in the late 1800s.
In one of them, she imagines the life of Agnes who arrived full of hope, but ended up trapped in the Seacliff asylum.
Rhian Gallagher talks to Lynn Freeman about the stories of those dark days..
Far Flung by Rhian Gallagher is published by Auckland University Press. Her previous collection, Shift, won the 2010 New Zealand Post Book Award for Poetry.