Shadows in Life & Art: Exploring the Grey Between | Nadine Ellis

Life is never purely light or purely dark. It’s lived in the shadows, in the quiet spaces where grief, resilience, creativity, and healing meet. In my recent conversation with Australian poet, author, and medical academic Nadine Ellis, we explored her journey of transformation — a story that threads together trauma, motherhood, and the healing power of poetry.

Nadine’s latest book, The Grey Between, is a poetic memoir that reflects the duality of existence: the harshness and beauty, the black, the white, and all the spaces in between. Through her words, she doesn’t just write about survival; she writes about reclaiming voice, presence, and power.

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Summary:

For Nadine, poetry began as a necessity, a lifeline during moments of bullying, heartbreak, and postnatal depression. She described writing as the one place she could put her feelings when her voice felt silenced. The page became her mirror, her confidante, her way of making sense of the chaos. Over time, what began as survival transformed into joy, serenity, and a deep sense of presence.

One of the most moving themes in Nadine’s story is the idea of shadows. From her early years of literally hiding in the shadows at school, to her professional life working with x-rays, to the metaphorical shadows in her creative work, they have been a constant. Rather than being a place of fear, Nadine describes the shadows as a place of comfort and truth. Her poetry embraces these darker aspects of life, not to glorify them, but to balance them against the fleeting beauty that makes life so precious.

She reminds us that creativity doesn’t need to be about perfection or publication. It can be as simple as picking up a pen and scribbling words onto a page. Poetry, like any form of creative expression, offers a way to step into presence, to play, and to release what weighs us down.

“Those things that happen to us shouldn’t define us,” Nadine shared. “It’s what we do as we move through them that defines us.”

Her words are an invitation: to pick up the pen, to honour what’s real, to make space for joy, and to find comfort in the grey between.

If you’re feeling the pull to explore poetry for healing, empowerment, or self-expression, Nadine’s story is proof that the page is always waiting, not for something polished or perfect, but for something true.

A Question for You

Where in your own life are you being invited to step into the grey, to honour both the shadows and the light, and what might creativity reveal to you there?

^{Nadne Ellis}

<sub>Nadine Ellis is an Australian poet who is the author of the recently released book, The Grey Between.

Nadine Ellis is an author, University lecturer and medical academic, whose journey of resilience and personal transformation has spanned the depths of abuse, the raw truths of motherhood, and the quiet battles of everyday life that so many women endure. 

Nadine’s new book, The Grey Between, shares poetry that heals and challenges, tracking her transformative journey and the balance of light and dark that is our human existence.</sub>

_{Website:https://www.nadineellis.com/}

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