Shortlisted for the 2016 Forward Prize for Best First Collection and the 2016 T S Eliot Prize for Best Collection.

Drawing from neuroscience on the idea of 'internal gain', an internal volume control which helps us amplify and focus on quiet sounds in times of threat, danger or intense concentration, Ruby Robinson's brilliant debut introduces a poet whose work is governed by a scrupulous attention to the detail of the contemporary world. Moving and original, her poems invite us to listen carefully, and use ideas of hearing and listening to explore the legacies of trauma. The book celebrates the separateness and connectedness of human experience in relationships, and our capacity to harm and love.

About the Author
Ruby Robinson was born in Manchester in 1985 and lives in Sheffield. She studied English Literature at the University of East Anglia and has an MA from Sheffield Hallam University where she also won the Ictus Prize for poetry. Her poems have appeared in The Poetry Review, Poetry (Chicago) and elsewhere.

Reviews
'These are taut, vibrant, intimate poems, structured in a such a way as to replicate the complicated manoeuvres our brains make as we try to understand human behaviour.'
osephine Corcoran
'Robinson retains/regains an artistic distance that augurs well for future collections...'
Martyn Crucefix
'From the outset, we are forewarned - there is nothing so personal that it cannot be expressed here. Robinson brings to light the unspoken connection between reader and poet, and even in the darkest of lines, empathy arises.'
Frances Kelly, Dundee University Reviews of the Arts
'Every Little Sound had the most profound impact on me.'
Noel Williams, The North
'An intelligent and disturbing debut that explores how family affects both our sense of self and our intimate relationships. Composed of free verse and occasional prose poems, it is stylistically original in its diction and syntax as speaker and poet grapple to render experience.'
Carrie Etter, The Guardian
'There are too many examples of good poetry in this book for any review outside of a monograph to do it justice. Perhaps all that needs to be said is that this is a serious arrival of a poet that I would view to be among our absolute best.'
The Next Review
'Ruby Robinson's Every Little Sound opens with a summary of the concept of 'internal gain': 'an internal volume control which helps to amplify and focus upon quiet sounds in times of threat, danger, or intense concentration'. The result is a set of hyperreal observations, transcending the everyday and unlocking its latent Gothic menace.'
John Field, Poor Rude Lines
'There is a profoundly thrilling menace behind these poems and how they dismantle the body...Every Little Sound is a book you'd cheer for even if it weren't the underdog.'
The Oxonian Review
''Past' kind of took my breath away when I first read it...The poem seems to be directly addressing the reader, as if we are part of that confession, as if we are the one being spoken to.'
Kim Moore, Poetry
'Robinson's work remains outward-looking, inviting us in from the very first line. [...] In the absence of answers, the speaker instead finds a voice - and the words - through which to articulate herself. Reflecting upon her mother's life, she recognises the ease with which we adopt or are forced into destructive roles in intimate relationships, replaying them years later. [...] These liberating lines come from having at last found a space for expression following years of oppressive silence, while maintaining a safe distance from face-to-face interaction, for now.'Lucy Winrow, The Manchester Review


Awards
Short-listed for Felix Dennis Prize for Best First Collection 2016 (UK).



Book Information
ISBN 9781781382912
Author Ruby Robinson
Format Paperback
Page Count 64
Imprint Liverpool University Press
Publisher Liverpool University Press