Description
Collective Winner of the 2019 Highland Book Prize Under the ravishing light of an Alaskan sky, objects are spilling from the thawing tundra linking a Yup'ik village to its hunter-gatherer past. In the shifting sand dunes of a Scottish shoreline, impressively preserved hearths and homes of Neolithic farmers are uncovered. In a grandmother's disordered mind, memories surface of a long-ago mining accident and a 'mither who was kind'. For this luminous new essay collection, acclaimed author Kathleen Jamie visits archaeological sites and mines her own memories - of her grandparents, of youthful travels - to explore what surfaces and what reconnects us to our past. As always she looks to the natural world for her markers and guides. Most movingly, she considers, as her father dies, and her children leave home, the surfacing of an older, less tethered sense of herself. Surfacing offers a profound sense of time passing and an antidote to all that is instant, ephemeral, unrooted.
A new collection of writing from the prize-winning author of Findings and Sightlines
About the Author
Multi-award winning poet and essayist Kathleen Jamie was born in the west of Scotland in 1962. She has written three works of non-fiction: Among Muslims (2002), an acclaimed travel narrative; and two ground-breaking collections of nature and travel writing, Findings (2005) and Sightlines (2012). She lives in Fife and is a Professor of Creative Writing at Stirling University.
Reviews
Nature in Jamie's writing is immediate, domestic and, well, natural... a book whose impact is accretive and, eventually, astonishing. -- Alex Preston * Observer *
Notes detailing chance encounters, fleeting relationships and a shared pull towards a specific world, (are) deepened with autobiographical anecdote, then shaken up with a vivid and urgent present-tense noticing that electrifies her connections and surroundings. It is as if Jamie, wherever she goes, functions as a lightning rod, drawing past, present and future together * New Statesman *
Surfacing by Kathleen Jamie really stood out -- Sinead Gleeson * Irish Times, Books of the Year 2019 *
"A beautifully produced essay collection that spirals back through interests and themes traced over the past 40 years of Jamie's career, as well as forwards into an unknown future... To read a Jamie essay is to be given a fresh lens through which to view the world -- Amanda Bell * Irish Times *
Book Information
ISBN 9781908745828
Author Kathleen Jamie
Format Paperback
Page Count 240
Imprint Sort of Books
Publisher Sort of Books
Weight(grams) 294g
Dimensions(mm) 196mm * 128mm * 24mm
A new collection of writing from the prize-winning author of Findings and Sightlines
About the Author
Multi-award winning poet and essayist Kathleen Jamie was born in the west of Scotland in 1962. She has written three works of non-fiction: Among Muslims (2002), an acclaimed travel narrative; and two ground-breaking collections of nature and travel writing, Findings (2005) and Sightlines (2012). She lives in Fife and is a Professor of Creative Writing at Stirling University.
Reviews
Nature in Jamie's writing is immediate, domestic and, well, natural... a book whose impact is accretive and, eventually, astonishing. -- Alex Preston * Observer *
Notes detailing chance encounters, fleeting relationships and a shared pull towards a specific world, (are) deepened with autobiographical anecdote, then shaken up with a vivid and urgent present-tense noticing that electrifies her connections and surroundings. It is as if Jamie, wherever she goes, functions as a lightning rod, drawing past, present and future together * New Statesman *
Surfacing by Kathleen Jamie really stood out -- Sinead Gleeson * Irish Times, Books of the Year 2019 *
"A beautifully produced essay collection that spirals back through interests and themes traced over the past 40 years of Jamie's career, as well as forwards into an unknown future... To read a Jamie essay is to be given a fresh lens through which to view the world -- Amanda Bell * Irish Times *
Book Information
ISBN 9781908745828
Author Kathleen Jamie
Format Paperback
Page Count 240
Imprint Sort of Books
Publisher Sort of Books
Weight(grams) 294g
Dimensions(mm) 196mm * 128mm * 24mm
