Description
Bodies. Rhythms. Motion. Sounds. All Fours is a debut collection of poetry from Nia Davies, a book of rituals in language that stalk the space between what is uttered and what is meant. These poems are haunted by the strange traces of the longest words in the world and folk-mythic figures such as Sinbad, Eurydice, Mossy Coat, Pan and Baba Yaga. They pose riddles with multiple or mysterious answers. A swerving sweary jump into a terrain that is both comically musical and perplexedly political, All Fours speaks of the (mis)adventures of sex and human communication, a life full-to-bursting with burning questions. All fours was longlisted for the 2019 Michael Murphy Memorial Prize and shortlisted for the Roland Mathias Poetry Award 2018 (Wales Book of the Year Awards).
About the Author
Nia Davies was born in Sheffield and studied English at the University of Sussex. She has been editor of Poetry Wales since 2014 and has worked on several international and collaborative projects such as Literature Across Frontiers, Wales International Poetry Festival and Wales Literature Exchange. Her poems and essays have been published and translated widely and she has appeared in several international festivals. A frequent collaborator with other poets and artists, she co-curated Gelynion, a Welsh Enemies project on collaboration in contemporary poetry in Wales in 2015. Her pamphlets, Then Spree (Salt, 2012), Cekoslovakyalilasti ramadiklar mizdanmisiniz or Long Words (Boiled String, 2016) and England (Crater, 2017), were followed by her first book-length collection, All fours (Bloodaxe Books, 2017). She is undertaking practice-based research at the University of Salford.
Reviews
'Nia Davies's poems are sharply attentive to the realm of the 'inner ear', a meeting point of external and internal environments. The lines have their own intense music, but instead of approaching song's recognition and resolution they push towards the unfamiliar. Archaeologies and soundscapes are carefully excavated in language that sparks at every turn, while multiple directions open for the reader and 'choice is a parallelogram / best made on the slant".' -Zoe Skoulding; 'Nia Davies writes rich and adventurous poems. Her work feels borderless, influenced by experimental American and eastern European poetries. In the event that an "I" surfaces in her work, it is defiantly plastic and multivalent.' - Dai George
Book Information
ISBN 9781780373645
Author Nia Davies
Format Paperback
Page Count 80
Imprint Bloodaxe Books Ltd
Publisher Bloodaxe Books Ltd
About the Author
Nia Davies was born in Sheffield and studied English at the University of Sussex. She has been editor of Poetry Wales since 2014 and has worked on several international and collaborative projects such as Literature Across Frontiers, Wales International Poetry Festival and Wales Literature Exchange. Her poems and essays have been published and translated widely and she has appeared in several international festivals. A frequent collaborator with other poets and artists, she co-curated Gelynion, a Welsh Enemies project on collaboration in contemporary poetry in Wales in 2015. Her pamphlets, Then Spree (Salt, 2012), Cekoslovakyalilasti ramadiklar mizdanmisiniz or Long Words (Boiled String, 2016) and England (Crater, 2017), were followed by her first book-length collection, All fours (Bloodaxe Books, 2017). She is undertaking practice-based research at the University of Salford.
Reviews
'Nia Davies's poems are sharply attentive to the realm of the 'inner ear', a meeting point of external and internal environments. The lines have their own intense music, but instead of approaching song's recognition and resolution they push towards the unfamiliar. Archaeologies and soundscapes are carefully excavated in language that sparks at every turn, while multiple directions open for the reader and 'choice is a parallelogram / best made on the slant".' -Zoe Skoulding; 'Nia Davies writes rich and adventurous poems. Her work feels borderless, influenced by experimental American and eastern European poetries. In the event that an "I" surfaces in her work, it is defiantly plastic and multivalent.' - Dai George
Book Information
ISBN 9781780373645
Author Nia Davies
Format Paperback
Page Count 80
Imprint Bloodaxe Books Ltd
Publisher Bloodaxe Books Ltd
