Carcanet Press Logo
Quote of the Day
Your list has always been interesting, idiosyncratic, imaginative and your translations [...] have been a source of pleasure to me.
Al Alvarez
Order by 16th December to receive books in time for Christmas. Please bear in mind that all orders may be subject to postal delays that are beyond our control.

the clarity of distant things

Jane Duran

Cover of the clarity of distant things by Jane Duran
10% off all versions
Categories: 21st Century, American, Caribbean, Women
Imprint: Carcanet Poetry
Publisher: Carcanet Press
Available as:
Paperback (104 pages)
(Pub. Sep 2021)
9781800171596
£11.99 £10.79
eBook (EPUB) Needs ADE!
(Pub. Sep 2021)
9781800171602
£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
  • Reviews
  • Jane Duran's new book of two striking sequences takes readers into other worlds – 'gridlines', in which the life and paintings of Agnes Martin are interwoven, and 'miniatures of al-Andalus' inspired by the illuminated Cantigas de Santa María and the art and artefacts of Islamic Iberia.

    The simple gridlines of Duran's couplets recall Martin's square canvasses, her precisely rendered grids and luminous stripes. Responding to individual images and to Martin's own biography, discovering lovely breaths of life entering the 'grey rectangles', the poems' intricate interlockings and brilliant images seem almost to escape the poems' formal enclosures, so that Martin's 'The Peach 1964', 'gave me back // only beige, graphite, / ink, sanity // and orchard after orchard'.
    Jane Duran was born in Cuba and raised in the USA and Chile. Selections of her poems have appeared in Poetry Introduction 8 (Faber 1993), Making for Planet Alice (Bloodaxe 1997), and Modern Women Poets (Bloodaxe 2005). In 1995 Enitharmon published her first full collection, Breathe Now, Breathe which won the ... read more
    'Luminous, pared-back work'

    Sarah Westcott, Artemis Poetry

    'This is a superb collection of poems that can only enhance Jane Duran's stature as a poet.'

    Kathleen McPhilemy, Acumen

    'These are quiet poems of intense visual concentration that attempt to access the paintings' deepest recesses... the book's two projects are both focused on frontiers of the visible, literal and figurative horizons... The unifying force in this book is Duran's own experience of the objects of her study, both of which she sees as leaving lasting marks on the world.'

    Ryo Yamaguchi, Harriet Books at The Poetry Foundation

    'Full of beauty and perception, these unusually supple responses seem to reach, in their open-endedness, for the infinite. Jane Duran shows a deep knowledge and engagement with the terrain in both complementary sequences. These are exquisite poems: 'Each one, clarified / true in miniature'.'

    Moniza Alvi

Share this...
The Carcanet Blog 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 Billy 'Nibs' Buckshot: John Gallas read more Emotional Support Horse: Claudine Toutoungi read more
Find your local bookshop logo
Arts Council Logo
We thank the Arts Council England for their support and assistance in this interactive Project.
This website ©2000-2024 Carcanet Press Ltd