From the direct trajectory of her first collection, Straight Ahead, Clare Shaw's second collection Head On turns an unflinching gaze into startling new territories. Structured by interweaving themes of political and personal conflict, the book begins and ends with the recurrent necessity of speaking out. And this is a book which speaks in equal measures, in precise and uncompromising language, about love and tenderness; violence and brutality. Clare Shaw writes to speak to the world. But first and foremost she speaks directly to the reader, through words which shock, engage, disturb and delight. This is a book which - in its content and its impact - sets out to establish and to challenge the limits of language. Exploring with unflinching focus and intent some of her darkest territory yet - but returning, as always, to the light - she offers us a furious but ultimately hopeful exploration of the world as she lives it.
Arvustused
'The energy and vivacity of Clare Shaw's writing, its colloquial power, frame of reference and sheer sound is enough to mark her out as one of the most talented young poets to appear in recent years. Hers is a natural gift that speaks as it sings. It confronts the world with knowledge, pity, melancholy, affection and a kind of sympathetic fury, as if the world were shards and fragments that could be gathered into the ear and sung from the heart. And the remarkable thing is that she does gather it and sing it, that she imbues it with the passion owing to it' - George Szirtes. 'Hold your breath when you read Clare Shaw's poems. Startling, searing, scorching, this is an emotional blast of a book' - Jackie Kay.
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I do not believe in silence |
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9 | (2) |
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11 | (2) |
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Conversations with X and Y |
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13 | (6) |
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30 | (7) |
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The Lesbian Guide to Conception |
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48 | (3) |
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51 | (6) |
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In the space of that year |
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57 | (2) |
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She's waited half her life to write this |
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59 | (1) |
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A withered brown flower takes on new colour |
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60 | (2) |
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62 | (2) |
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64 | (6) |
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You'd start with the page |
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Clare Shaw was born in Burnley in 1972. Their first two collections with Bloodaxe were Straight Ahead (2006), which attracted a Forward Prize Highly Commended for Best Single Poem, and Head On (2012), which according to the Times Literary Supplement is 'fierce, memorable and visceral'. Their later collections are Flood (2018), a New Writing North Read Regional title in 2019, and Towards a General Theory of Love (2022) which won a Northern Writers' Award and was a Poetry Society Book of the Year.
Their poetry is widely anthologised including 100 Queer Poems (Penguin Random House, 2022) and the National Trusts Nature Poems (2023). It is also set to music, illustrated and staged, and has featured multiple times on Radio 4s Poetry Please and Radio 3s The Verb. In 2021, Clare wrote the libretto for the community opera Daylighting, which premièred at the Royal Academy of Music and was shortlisted for an Ivor Novello Award for Community and Engagement. They have also written for theatre and radio, and as a mental health educator and trainer, they have published numerous resources in the field of mental health. Clare lives on the hills above Hebden Bridge and in 2022, co-wrote and presented Radio Fours Weathering the Storm which explored the relationship between art, resilience and the landscape of the Calder Valley.
A passionate advocate for accessibility in poetry, and for poetry as a tool of personal and social change, Clare has founded or directed numerous poetry initiatives including the Kendal Poetry Festival, Wonky Animals, the Lost Things Project and more. They have held poetry residences in numerous settings, including festivals, conferences, hospitals, factories, landfill sites and bogs; and they collaborate with artists and academics in other disciplines, including photography, folk music, film, conservation and design. Clare lectures at the University of Huddersfield and is a regular tutor for Wordsworth Grasmere, The Royal Literary Fund and The Arvon Foundation. Variously described as 'electrifying' and as 'one of the best readers on the scene', Clare performs across the UK and beyond.
