Carcanet Press - Seasonal Disturbances

Description
Author
Awards
Reviews

'A strange and stunning collection from a true writer. Vulnerable, hilarious and wise, Seasonal Disturbances is a darkly humorous exploration of the human condition.'
Young Poet Laureate for London, Warsan Shire

Second Place Winner of the 2020 Laurel Prize for Ecopoetry
A 2017 Poetry Book Society Recommendation

Following her groundbreaking 2014 début An Aviary of Small Birds (‘technically perfect poems of winged heartbreak’ – Observer), Karen McCarthy Woolf returns with Seasonal Disturbances.

Set against a backdrop of ecological and emotional turbulence, these poems are charged yet meditative explorations of nature, the city, and the self. A sinister CEO presides over a dystopian hinterland where private detectives investigate crimes against hollyhocks; Halcyon is discovered as a dead kingfisher, washed up on an Italian beach. Lyrical and inventive, McCarthy Woolf’s poems test classic and contemporary forms, from a disrupted zuihitsu that considers her relationship with water, to the landay, golden shovel, and gram of &.

As a fifth-generation Londoner and daughter of a Jamaican émigré, McCarthy Woolf makes a variety of linguistic subversions that critique the rhetoric of the British class system. Political as they may be, these poems are not reportage: they aim to inspire what the author describes as an ‘activism of the heart, where we connect to and express forces of renewal and love’.

Cover Illustration: Nuri R. Melgarejo

Karen McCarthy Woolf was born in London to an English mother and a Jamaican father. She is the recipient of the Kate Betts Memorial Prize and an Arts and Humanities Research Council scholarship from Royal Holloway, where she is a PhD candidate. Described in The Poetry Review as ‘extraordinarily moving and ... read more

Awards won by Karen McCarthy Woolf Winner, 2020 The Laurel Prize for Ecopoetry, Second Place (Seasonal Disturbances ) Commended, 2017 Poetry Book Society Recommendation. (Seasonal Disturbances ) Short-listed, 2015 Fenton Aldeburgh First Collection Prize
(An Aviary of Small Birds) Short-listed, 2015 Felix Dennis Prize for Best First Collection
(An Aviary of Small Birds)

  'This is a book which goes beyond invention to intervention, offering hybrid forms through which to apprehend the world. Consider its 'couplings', which lineate and striate 'pre-existing prose' with response lines to 'create a new lyric narrative' (as the notes elucidate). This is true to how our minds reverberate with information, with the assimilated otherness of alien texts. It does not rest at passive record or academic critique of such an internal state. It makes music, love, and rapture'
Vahni Capildeo in The Compass Magazine
'Witty, provocative and lyrically accomplished.'
Poetry London
  'For all its internationalism, McCarthy Woolf's poetry engages with the local and the personal. Reading Seasonal Disturbances is like picking up a London A-Z and finding it's a new map of the world.'
Karen's poem 'Outside' from Seasonal Disturbances was Guardian Poem of the Week, 25th December 2017
'Seasonal Disturbances is an unclassifiable book, revolutionary in its engagement with form, stunning in its intersectional politics, and an extraordinary achievement that should give the selectors of major poetry prize lists cold sweats for neglecting it. It will break you, in a good way. Truth hurts.'
The Poetry School Books of the Year 2017
'A fine antidote to Brexit delusions and certainties: London-watching and form-reshaping, unpredictable and casually intense.'
Carol Rumens, Best Poetry Books of 2017, The Guardian
'A masterclass in structure.'
Magma Poetry
'Seasonal Disturbances might be strange, but it's also a brilliant selection of poems [...] It's a collection that teaches you something about human beings as well as yourself.'
The Poetry School   'Formally ambitious...big-idea poems made up of bite-size insights and ironies that establish political anger and ecological anxiety.'
The Sunday Times
Praise for Karen McCarthy Woolf 'I loved Karen McCarthy Woolf's technically perfect poems of winged heartbreak'
Maggie Gee, The Observer - The New Review, 29.11.2015. '[McCarthy Woolf has] a powerful command of form and rhythm.'
Alan Brownjohn, Poetry Review

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Seasonal Disturbances Karen McCarthy Woolf 10% off eBook (EPUB) 10% off Paperback Categories: 21st Century Imprint: Carcanet Poetry Publisher: Carcanet Press Available as: Paperback (84 pages) (Pub. Jul 2017) 9781784103361 £9.99 £8.99 eBook (EPUB) Needs ADE! (Pub. Jul 2017) 9781784103378 £7.99 £7.19 Digital access available through Exact Editions To use the EPUB version, you will need to have Adobe Digital Editions (ADE) installed on your device. You can find out more at https://www.adobe.com/uk/solutions/ebook/digital-editions.html. Please do not purchase this version if you do not have and are not prepared to install, Adobe Digital Editions. Description Author Awards Reviews 'A strange and stunning collection from a true writer. Vulnerable, hilarious and wise, Seasonal Disturbances is a darkly humorous exploration of the human condition.' Young Poet Laureate for London, Warsan Shire Second Place Winner of the 2020 Laurel Prize for Ecopoetry A 2017 Poetry Book Society Recommendation Following her groundbreaking 2014 début An Aviary of Small Birds (‘technically perfect poems of winged heartbreak’ – Observer), Karen McCarthy Woolf returns with Seasonal Disturbances. Set against a backdrop of ecological and emotional turbulence, these poems are charged yet meditative explorations of nature, the city, and the self. A sinister CEO presides over a dystopian hinterland where private detectives investigate crimes against hollyhocks; Halcyon is discovered as a dead kingfisher, washed up on an Italian beach. Lyrical and inventive, McCarthy Woolf’s poems test classic and contemporary forms, from a disrupted zuihitsu that considers her relationship with water, to the landay, golden shovel, and gram of &. As a fifth-generation Londoner and daughter of a Jamaican émigré, McCarthy Woolf makes a variety of linguistic subversions that critique the rhetoric of the British class system. Political as they may be, these poems are not reportage: they aim to inspire what the author describes as an ‘activism of the heart, where we connect to and express forces of renewal and love’. Cover Illustration: Nuri R. Melgarejo Karen McCarthy Woolf was born in London to an English mother and a Jamaican father. She is the recipient of the Kate Betts Memorial Prize and an Arts and Humanities Research Council scholarship from Royal Holloway, where she is a PhD candidate. Described in The Poetry Review as ‘extraordinarily moving and ... read more Awards won by Karen McCarthy Woolf Winner, 2020 The Laurel Prize for Ecopoetry, Second Place (Seasonal Disturbances ) Commended, 2017 Poetry Book Society Recommendation. (Seasonal Disturbances ) Short-listed, 2015 Fenton Aldeburgh First Collection Prize (An Aviary of Small Birds) Short-listed, 2015 Felix Dennis Prize for Best First Collection (An Aviary of Small Birds) 'This is a book which goes beyond invention to intervention, offering hybrid forms through which to apprehend the world. Consider its 'couplings', which lineate and striate 'pre-existing prose' with response lines to 'create a new lyric narrative' (as the notes elucidate). This is true to how our minds reverberate with information, with the assimilated otherness of alien texts. It does not rest at passive record or academic critique of such an internal state. It makes music, love, and rapture' Vahni Capildeo in The Compass Magazine 'Witty, provocative and lyrically accomplished.' Poetry London 'For all its internationalism, McCarthy Woolf's poetry engages with the local and the personal. Reading Seasonal Disturbances is like picking up a London A-Z and finding it's a new map of the world.' *Karen's poem 'Outside' from Seasonal Disturbances* was Guardian Poem of the Week, 25th December 2017 'Seasonal Disturbances is an unclassifiable book, revolutionary in its engagement with form, stunning in its intersectional politics, and an extraordinary achievement that should give the selectors of major poetry prize lists cold sweats for neglecting it. It will break you, in a good way. Truth hurts.' The Poetry School Books of the Year 2017** 'A fine antidote to Brexit delusions and certainties: London-watching and form-reshaping, unpredictable and casually intense.' Carol Rumens, Best Poetry Books of 2017, The Guardian 'A masterclass in structure.' Magma Poetry 'Seasonal Disturbances might be strange, but it's also a brilliant selection of poems [...] It's a collection that teaches you something about human beings as well as yourself.' The Poetry School 'Formally ambitious...big-idea poems made up of bite-size insights and ironies that establish political anger and ecological anxiety.' The Sunday Times Praise for Karen McCarthy Woolf 'I loved Karen McCarthy Woolf's technically perfect poems of winged heartbreak' Maggie Gee, The Observer - The New Review, 29.11.2015. '[McCarthy Woolf has] a powerful command of form and rhythm.' Alan Brownjohn, Poetry Review	Share this... Quick Links Carcanet Poetry Carcanet Classics Carcanet Fiction Carcanet Film Lives and Letters PN Review Video Carcanet Celebrates 50 Years! The Carcanet Blog We've Moved! read more Books of the Year read more One Little Room: Peter McDonald read more Collected Poems: Mimi Khalvati read more Invisible Dog: Fabio Morbito, translated by Richard Gwyn read more Dante's Purgatorio: Philip Terry read more
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