Chick - Softcover

Lowe, Hannah

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1852249609 ISBN 13: 9781852249601

Publisher: Bloodaxe Books, 2013

Synopsis

Hannah Lowe's first book of poems takes you on a journey round her father, a Chinese-black Jamaican migrant who disappeared at night to play cards or dice in London's old East End to support his family, an unstable and dangerous existence that took its toll on his physical and mental health. `Chick' was his gambling nickname. A shadowy figure in her childhood, Chick was only half known to her until she entered the night world of the old man as a young woman. With London as their backdrop, Hannah Lowe's deeply personal narrative poems are often filmic in effect and brimming with sensory detail in their evocations of childhood and coming-of-age, love and loss of love, grief and regret.

About this title

About the Author

Hannah Lowe was born in Ilford to an English mother and Jamaican-Chinese father. She has lived in Brighton and Santa Cruz, California. She studied American Literature at the University of Sussex and has a Masters degree in Refugee Studies. Currently she lives in Brixton and teaches literature and creative writing in London. Her pamphlet The Hitcher (The Rialto, 2011) was widely praised. Her first book-length collection Chick is published by Bloodaxe Books in 2013.

Review

'Chick opens with a powerful sequence of poems centred around the poet's memories of her Chinese/black Jamaican father - a complex, larger than life character who came to London in the late 40s and eked out a living as, among other things, a gambler. But the book is very much more than a personal reminiscence and family history. This is a collection cross-hatched with myth and history, a hymn to London as much as to its characters. Though all the poems have a strong, vividly cinematographic line, they are also beautifully lyrical - sung stories, offering us the glimpsed lives of strangers and lovers. But however poignant and moving it may be, the collection remains doggedly celebratory of life itself, of people and place, loved and remembered. Each poem takes us a little further into the mystery of lives in a world that is as incomprehensible as it is unforgettable. This is an outstanding, unputdownable first collection' - John Glenday. 'Here is a poet with a commanding style; her voice is entirely her own, both rich and laconic. These are poems springing from the page with vitality, rue and insight. Her elegies are restrained and devastating. An extraordinary debut' - Penelope Shuttle.

About this edition

• Publisher: Bloodaxe Books
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 1852249609
• ISBN 13: 9781852249601
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 72