Carcanet Press - Eleanor Among the Saints

Description
Author
Awards
Reviews

Shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize 2024
A Poetry Book Society Spring Recommendation 2024

In her second collection, Mann wrestles with the questions and possibilities raised when trans identity, faith and the limits of myth and language intersect and are tested. Eleanor Among the Saints is a study in the queer joy found in counter-factuals and fantasy, shaped through the prism of the disputed story of Eleanor Rykener, a medieval trans woman, seamstress and sex worker.

Rachel Mann is a priest, writer and broadcaster. She is the author of thirteen books, including her debut poetry collection, A Kingdom of Love (Carcanet, 2019), and the acclaimed non-fiction, Fierce Imaginings: The Great War, Ritual, Memory, and God (DLT, 2017). She is a Visiting Teaching Fellow at The Manchester Writing ... read more

Awards won by Rachel Mann Short-listed, 2024 The T.S. Eliot Prize (Eleanor Among the Saints) Commended, 2024 A Poetry Book Society Spring Recommendation
(Eleanor Among the Saints)

'In Eleanor Among the Saints, Rachel Mann's language is underpinned by trans history and the liturgy. It's a collection of struggle, but also one of consolation. It's both a literary achievement and an important pin in the map for trans people - for people.'
John Field, T.S. Eliot Prize 2024
'Mann writes into the gaps in Eleanor's history and record to come out with something more than the sum of its parts: gorgeous language, visceral, decadent and tender, full of Eleanor's imagined faces: saint and widow, lyric poet and wife; mercurial, shifting, but always defiant.... The body in Mann's work is as full of holiness as it is of queerness, of mess and filth and life, and it's this nuance, playful and inventive, grief-stricken and furious, that makes this collection one of the best of this year so far.'
Kym Deyn, Magma
'It's a rare pleasure to find faith articulated and explored in such a multi-layered, subversive, intricate, intimate, sensual way... Eleanor Among the Saints is a brilliant sequence'
Rosie Jackson, Acumen
'As dazzling as an altarpiece, and as finely made as a work of Opus Anglicanum embroidery'
Carl Tomlinson, The Friday Poem
'Mann is scrupulous and salacious with her words, nothing is wasted, like communion wine and bread, we are served and transformed into Eleanor.'
Roy McFarlane, The Poetry Book Society Bulletin
'For all their linguistic fireworks and probing of meaning, these poems are always emotionally accessible, operating on a level of insight and care that might restore a person's faith in spirituality. Particularly adept at the glorious unravelling that love can render on a body and a spirit, these poems about with witty asides and devastating last lines.'
Jessica Traynor, The Irish Times
'I heartily recommend this rich collection to anyone, not only for its fabulous wrangling of character, medieval history and lived experience, but as a reminder of how we too should step up to the plate with the same courage as the poet.'
Rennie Parker, Everybody's Reviewing
'Mann moves from Eleanor's dramatic monologues to personal mythologies, one poem a movingly restrained outcry meditating on the body and biblical instruction... Using transgressive linguistic play to expand the prosody of faith-based poetics, Mann's language energises without compromising the soul's inclination towards the afterlife.'
Oluwaseun Olayiwola, The Guardian
'All poetry has something to do with bodies being transformed â whether in violence and grief, or in hope, in embrace, in miracle. Rachel Mann's brilliant collection is about these transformations, realised for us here with exhilarating verbal energy and emotional subtlety, a poetry that is solid and fluid at the same time, as bodies are.'
Rowan Williams 'Rachel Mann weaves an intricate web of language to examine the intimate relationship between the transforming, transformative body, between sexuality and spirituality, between religious ecstasy, fear and love. When Eleanor 'John' Rykener - a trans person living in medieval England - says 'I am not code for another's sins' she becomes utterly contemporary and timeless at the same time and we would all do well to listen.'
Kim Moore 'Nobody else could have written this: poems formed in the space where divinity, the body, trans identity and history fold together. A singular, sensational collection.'
Andrew McMillan Praise for Rachel Mann 'A surprising talent alive and flourishing in our secular world.'
William Bedford, Agenda 'Mann's wrestling with ideas of language and religion is ambitious and richly complex... there's a wonderful energy and tangibility.'

Patrick James Errington, Poetry London
'A passionate examination in short lyrics, of some of life's big questions on death, faith, doubt and, of course, love.'
Lizzie Husum, Dundee University Review of the Arts
'These are poems of hard-working faith: tense and taut, perceptive, and humbly vulnerable.'
Martyn Halsall, Church Times
'This book has a great deal to offer those who don't believe in a god; strength, connection, the time taken to slow down and reflect on how we relate to others, and how we can continue to move forward on both difficult days and joyous ones... These are poems to sit with, to linger over.'

Dianne Mulholland

'This collection by Anglican priest and poet Rachel Mann is richly lyrical and textured ... These poems are certainly food for thought, but they neither pontificate nor patronise ... wry and poignant and reflective by turns'

Sarah Law, Stride magazine: 'Liturgy, Litany and Lyric'

'A Kingdom of Love is a stirring set of poems, vibrant, gentle, yet at times has the ability to make the reader aware of their surroundings, a mild shaking of sorts'
The Bobsphere
'This is a beautiful, incantatory free verse that sparkles with alliteration and allusions'
BookishBeck
'A Kingdom of Love is a hard-won book of wonders. Poem after poem works at the edge of what language can describe or explore - the nature of belief, the presence and absence of God, the rituals and reality of death, suffering and above all, love. It is a mesmerising debut.'
Michael Symmons Roberts

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Eleanor Among the Saints Rachel Mann 10% off all versions Categories: 21st Century, British, Christianity, LGBTQ+, Second Collections, Women Imprint: Carcanet Poetry Publisher: Carcanet Press Available as: Paperback (80 pages) (Pub. Jan 2024) 9781800173811 £11.99 £10.79 eBook (EPUB) Needs ADE! (Pub. Jan 2024) 9781800173828 £9.59 £8.63 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 Shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize 2024 A Poetry Book Society Spring Recommendation 2024 In her second collection, Mann wrestles with the questions and possibilities raised when trans identity, faith and the limits of myth and language intersect and are tested. Eleanor Among the Saints is a study in the queer joy found in counter-factuals and fantasy, shaped through the prism of the disputed story of Eleanor Rykener, a medieval trans woman, seamstress and sex worker. Rachel Mann is a priest, writer and broadcaster. She is the author of thirteen books, including her debut poetry collection, A Kingdom of Love (Carcanet, 2019), and the acclaimed non-fiction, Fierce Imaginings: The Great War, Ritual, Memory, and God (DLT, 2017). She is a Visiting Teaching Fellow at The Manchester Writing ... read more Awards won by Rachel Mann Short-listed, 2024 The T.S. Eliot Prize (Eleanor Among the Saints) Commended, 2024 A Poetry Book Society Spring Recommendation (Eleanor Among the Saints) 'In Eleanor Among the Saints, Rachel Mann's language is underpinned by trans history and the liturgy. It's a collection of struggle, but also one of consolation. It's both a literary achievement and an important pin in the map for trans people - for people.' John Field, T.S. Eliot Prize 2024 'Mann writes into the gaps in Eleanor's history and record to come out with something more than the sum of its parts: gorgeous language, visceral, decadent and tender, full of Eleanor's imagined faces: saint and widow, lyric poet and wife; mercurial, shifting, but always defiant.... The body in Mann's work is as full of holiness as it is of queerness, of mess and filth and life, and it's this nuance, playful and inventive, grief-stricken and furious, that makes this collection one of the best of this year so far.' Kym Deyn, Magma 'It's a rare pleasure to find faith articulated and explored in such a multi-layered, subversive, intricate, intimate, sensual way... Eleanor Among the Saints is a brilliant sequence' Rosie Jackson, Acumen 'As dazzling as an altarpiece, and as finely made as a work of Opus Anglicanum embroidery' Carl Tomlinson, The Friday Poem 'Mann is scrupulous and salacious with her words, nothing is wasted, like communion wine and bread, we are served and transformed into Eleanor.' Roy McFarlane, The Poetry Book Society Bulletin 'For all their linguistic fireworks and probing of meaning, these poems are always emotionally accessible, operating on a level of insight and care that might restore a person's faith in spirituality. Particularly adept at the glorious unravelling that love can render on a body and a spirit, these poems about with witty asides and devastating last lines.' Jessica Traynor, The Irish Times 'I heartily recommend this rich collection to anyone, not only for its fabulous wrangling of character, medieval history and lived experience, but as a reminder of how we too should step up to the plate with the same courage as the poet.' Rennie Parker, Everybody's Reviewing 'Mann moves from Eleanor's dramatic monologues to personal mythologies, one poem a movingly restrained outcry meditating on the body and biblical instruction... Using transgressive linguistic play to expand the prosody of faith-based poetics, Mann's language energises without compromising the soul's inclination towards the afterlife.' Oluwaseun Olayiwola, The Guardian 'All poetry has something to do with bodies being transformed â whether in violence and grief, or in hope, in embrace, in miracle. Rachel Mann's brilliant collection is about these transformations, realised for us here with exhilarating verbal energy and emotional subtlety, a poetry that is solid and fluid at the same time, as bodies are.' Rowan Williams 'Rachel Mann weaves an intricate web of language to examine the intimate relationship between the transforming, transformative body, between sexuality and spirituality, between religious ecstasy, fear and love. When Eleanor 'John' Rykener - a trans person living in medieval England - says 'I am not code for another's sins' she becomes utterly contemporary and timeless at the same time and we would all do well to listen.' Kim Moore 'Nobody else could have written this: poems formed in the space where divinity, the body, trans identity and history fold together. A singular, sensational collection.' Andrew McMillan Praise for Rachel Mann 'A surprising talent alive and flourishing in our secular world.' William Bedford, Agenda 'Mann's wrestling with ideas of language and religion is ambitious and richly complex... there's a wonderful energy and tangibility.' Patrick James Errington, Poetry London 'A passionate examination in short lyrics, of some of life's big questions on death, faith, doubt and, of course, love.' Lizzie Husum, Dundee University Review of the Arts 'These are poems of hard-working faith: tense and taut, perceptive, and humbly vulnerable.' Martyn Halsall, Church Times 'This book has a great deal to offer those who don't believe in a god; strength, connection, the time taken to slow down and reflect on how we relate to others, and how we can continue to move forward on both difficult days and joyous ones... These are poems to sit with, to linger over.' Dianne Mulholland 'This collection by Anglican priest and poet Rachel Mann is richly lyrical and textured ... These poems are certainly food for thought, but they neither pontificate nor patronise ... wry and poignant and reflective by turns' Sarah Law, Stride magazine: 'Liturgy, Litany and Lyric' 'A Kingdom of Love is a stirring set of poems, vibrant, gentle, yet at times has the ability to make the reader aware of their surroundings, a mild shaking of sorts' The Bobsphere 'This is a beautiful, incantatory free verse that sparkles with alliteration and allusions' BookishBeck 'A Kingdom of Love is a hard-won book of wonders. Poem after poem works at the edge of what language can describe or explore - the nature of belief, the presence and absence of God, the rituals and reality of death, suffering and above all, love. It is a mesmerising debut.' Michael Symmons Roberts	Share this... Quick Links Carcanet Poetry Carcanet Classics Carcanet Fiction Carcanet Film Lives and Letters PN Review Video Carcanet Celebrates 50 Years! 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