Published in 2009 by Scallta Media, and designed by Paul, Betty Thompson’s debut poetry collection has garnered much praise.
An arresting plainness is evident in several poems in PAINTING THE VESTIBULE, Betty Thompson’s first collection. The cover depicts a close-up of stained glass, an image that expresses both the vividness of her language and its attention to detail. Thompson also shows a willingness to reach to the heart of human frailty and to leave behind the safety of the descriptive lyric. Linking the power of visual artwork with the interior process of the observer in a poem such as LEARNING TO BE I, Thompson engages with the question of how the search for human meaning can be represented.
The Irish Times