It is always a pleasure to be asked to write a review or book blurb. Some recent ones below.
Karen Pierce Gonzalez, ‘Coyote in the basket of my ribs’ forthcoming from Kesley Books
‘Pierce Gonzalez’s ‘Coyote in the basket of my ribs’ is an exquisite exploration of restlessness. She expertly transcribes the sadness of the untameable, displaying a deep connection with wildness. Her coyote dream poems are intertwined with a delicate, involving understanding of loss, of dependency on the just out of reach, and the melding of domesticity and other.’
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Moira J Saucer, ‘Wiregrass’ from Ethel Zine
In this hand-finished, debut chapbook, from Ethel Zine, Moira J Saucer explores 19 poems, permitting an insight into a world of loss and discovery. Set over 15 years she reveals her experience through ‘a tent of opaque anguish’, while acknowledging buds of optimism. Her inclination to tend, despite the challenges, and pain, she faces, is apparent through these poignant and moving poems - ‘knitting wholeness together’. ‘Wiregrass’ the title poem, vividly shows the edge of human nature, living in the American Wastelands.‘
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Elisabeth Horan, ‘The Mask’ from The Broken Spine:
‘Incredibly powerful, an unashamed assertion of woman, ‘The Mask’ explores the exquisite intensity of desire. An intimate portrait of the cerebral and visceral meaning of yearning, Elisabeth’s lyricism urges uprising: the relinquishing and seizing of control. The rhythmical sense of abandon within these ekphrastic responses, intwined with Frida’s native Spanish, feed a lingering connection between the artist’s and poet’s tenacious spirits.’
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Amantine Brodeur, ‘Falling Slowly’ from Bookhub publishing:
‘Amantine’s ‘Falling Slowly’ promises a journey through longing, the unravelling of relationships, and the shifting patterns of desire for sensual connection. This beautiful affecting collection explores the uncovering of bodies which share intimacy, corporeal proximity of living and loss, the intoxication of dwelling and visceral affection, alongside the brutality of coercion and stratum of toxic behaviours. Layers of bougainvillea, midnight scents and sepia reflections of the Mesopotamic, travel these gathered poems of love and trauma, centred on a friend’s suicide, through nuanced expression and allegories of nature. Amantine expertly depicts though a lens of spontaneous lyrical language quiet lament, an innate yearning, and devotion to the human condition with all its delicacies. Her poems record the intent of a poem to be written, and the capacity of the feminine laced with discord.‘
