Shortlisted for the Saltire Society Poetry Book of the Year 2024

Longlisted for The Laurel Prize 2024

Janette Ayachi's second collection moves away from the personal and delves into the universal with poems often taking flight from the page to parachute into performance. Her hypnotic voice lifts from a keen observing stance to one that probes the chemical reactions in nature, and especially in the body. Fire is seen as an element; as something environmental, a natural disaster. But Ayachi also plays with fire as a fuel in relationships; a heat felt and subject to synergy within the cells and flesh, a cardiac pulse, a love that comes quickly and burns slowly, constantly rekindling hope for change, peace and renewal. There is a mystic undertow that exposes the materials, the lore of bones and anatomy, pilgrimages and prayers, superstitions and super galaxies that she explores with language. Lost landscapes and lost loves merge as she confronts loneliness at the same time as showing us new bloom is on the horizon - that nature will always will us another spark.

About the Author
Janette Ayachi is a London-born, Edinburgh-based, Scottish-Algerian poet. She graduated with a Combined BA Honours in English Literature & Film Media from Stirling University and an MSc in Creative Writing from Edinburgh University. She's a regular on BBC Scotland arts programmes and her work has been translated into several languages across a broad range of journals and anthologies. Her debut poetry book 'Hand Over Mouth Music' (Pavilion) won the Saltire Poetry Book of the Year Literary Award 2019 and she is now working on her travel memoir 'Lonerlust'. She collaborates with artists and works with poetry in public places, as well as regularly performing spoken word at festivals and events internationally.

Reviews

'In blazing, urgent poems, Janette Ayachi celebrates love's alchemy and afterburn. "I miss her like I miss the sun," the speaker muses, in a tender meditation on women's love. This collection moves skilfully between delicate lyricism, the changing seasons and the climate crisis. The personal, the passionate, the political and the planetary shine together. Ayachi's mesmerising poems take us on a journey from Rio to Glen Nevis, and blaze a trail up a transcendental mountain.' Yvonne Reddick

Book Information
ISBN 9781802074772
Author Janette Ayachi
Format Paperback
Page Count 96
Imprint Liverpool University Press
Publisher Liverpool University Press