Description
Crystal traces the arc of one woman's experience after the discovery that her partner is addicted to crystal meth. In a highly original poetic act of reclamation, it plunders the drug itself and makes of it an overarching conceit to articulate the devastating impact of living with a loved one who is utterly changed. Deeply felt, tirelessly inventive, this collection will resonate with anyone who has experienced addiction's explosive effect within a family. At the same time it speaks universally and with urgency of the power of poetry to take one through the darkest of times. Crystal is Ellen Cranitch's second collection, following The Immortalist (Templar Press), which was shortlisted for the Seamus Heaney Prize for Best Collection 2018.
About the Author
Ellen Cranitch is a poet, lecturer and journalist. Her debut collection, The Immortalist (Templar Press), was shortlisted for the Seamus Heaney Award for Best First Collection 2018. Her second collection, Crystal, is due from Bloodaxe in 2024. Born in London of Irish parents, Ellen holds an MA in English Literature from Cambridge University and a PhD in Creative Writing (Poetry and Poetics) from the University of St Andrews. She has taught Creative Writing and literature at a number of universities including University College London and Bath Spa. Recent posts include Lecturer in Creative Writing at the University of Hull where she ran the poetry modules. Her arts journalism has appeared in The Times, New Statesman and The Irish Times and she contributes poetry reviews and interviews to Poetry London and The Poetry Review. She currently works at the City Lit Institute, London, teaching the Masterclass and Advanced Poetry Workshop.
Reviews
Utterly mesmerising. An intensely rewarding and spine-tingling experience. What pain underlies it is mitigated by so much love, rescue, hope and triumph. Only a real poet can take one from a walk with Cavafy amongst the stones of the Acropolis to the misery of Heston motorway services; from Colombian emerald mines to communing with T.S. Eliot's ashes in East Coker... Cranitch takes the resources of landscape, science, philosophy, mythology and of course poetry and uses them not just to meditate on the cruel, sordid, terrifying and humiliating truths of addiction, but to do something more than meditate - to understand, to resolve and to transform. This is what poetry at its best and truest can do. A wonderful achievement. -- Stephen Fry
Tender and profound...honest and brave...propelled by a faith in the humane, in the redemptive possibilities of love... Crystal...adds to that library that attests to the human spirit's ability to witness and endure and, sometimes at least, come out singing. -- Hisham Matar * Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Return *
Book Information
ISBN 9781780376974
Author Ellen Cranitch
Format Paperback
Page Count 96
Imprint Bloodaxe Books Ltd
Publisher Bloodaxe Books Ltd
Dimensions(mm) 234mm * 156mm * 8mm
About the Author
Ellen Cranitch is a poet, lecturer and journalist. Her debut collection, The Immortalist (Templar Press), was shortlisted for the Seamus Heaney Award for Best First Collection 2018. Her second collection, Crystal, is due from Bloodaxe in 2024. Born in London of Irish parents, Ellen holds an MA in English Literature from Cambridge University and a PhD in Creative Writing (Poetry and Poetics) from the University of St Andrews. She has taught Creative Writing and literature at a number of universities including University College London and Bath Spa. Recent posts include Lecturer in Creative Writing at the University of Hull where she ran the poetry modules. Her arts journalism has appeared in The Times, New Statesman and The Irish Times and she contributes poetry reviews and interviews to Poetry London and The Poetry Review. She currently works at the City Lit Institute, London, teaching the Masterclass and Advanced Poetry Workshop.
Reviews
Utterly mesmerising. An intensely rewarding and spine-tingling experience. What pain underlies it is mitigated by so much love, rescue, hope and triumph. Only a real poet can take one from a walk with Cavafy amongst the stones of the Acropolis to the misery of Heston motorway services; from Colombian emerald mines to communing with T.S. Eliot's ashes in East Coker... Cranitch takes the resources of landscape, science, philosophy, mythology and of course poetry and uses them not just to meditate on the cruel, sordid, terrifying and humiliating truths of addiction, but to do something more than meditate - to understand, to resolve and to transform. This is what poetry at its best and truest can do. A wonderful achievement. -- Stephen Fry
Tender and profound...honest and brave...propelled by a faith in the humane, in the redemptive possibilities of love... Crystal...adds to that library that attests to the human spirit's ability to witness and endure and, sometimes at least, come out singing. -- Hisham Matar * Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Return *
Book Information
ISBN 9781780376974
Author Ellen Cranitch
Format Paperback
Page Count 96
Imprint Bloodaxe Books Ltd
Publisher Bloodaxe Books Ltd
Dimensions(mm) 234mm * 156mm * 8mm
