Isn't Forever

Amy Key's Isn't Forever is a spell book for feminine selfhood in a world where a sense of self is flimsy, elusive and unrequited. The poems in this book are obsessive in their desire to construct and breach the terms of their own intimacy. The poems have their own `narrative costume' but are vexed with it, not quite able to master the 'diligence of having a body'. This is a book where a tender and sabotaging shame of aloneness has taken root. Where wants cluster and are at war with each other. Where the heart is at once 'all lurgy' and an 'investment piece' to be saved for best. Where the sea is the only solace, but the sea is blase. The `ta-dah!' and candour of these poems is an exercise in Amy Key's imaginative protection and urge for personal extravaganza, an attempt to acknowledge but fight back the brutal inner voice. The obscure audience of the reader is never out of sight. Amy Key's first collection Luxe was published by Salt in 2013. Isn't Forever, her second book-length collection, is a Poetry Book Society Wildcard Choice.

Amy Key grew up in Kent and the North-East; she now lives and works in London. Her first collection Luxe was published by Salt in 2013. She is the author of two pamphlets Instead of Stars (Tall Lighthouse) and History (If A Leaf Falls Press). In 2014 she edited an anthology of poems on friendship between women Best Friends Forever (The Emma Press). Her poems have been widely published in magazines and anthologies including Poetry, The Poetry Review, New Statesman, Rough Trade Magazine, Best British Poetry 2015 (Salt), Poetry Please (Faber & Faber) and The Poetry of Sex (Penguin). Her second book-length collection, Isn't Forever (Bloodaxe Books, 2018) is a Poetry Book Society Wild Card Choice.