Skinship by Alexandra Corrin-Tachibana

Skinship by Alexandra Corrin-Tachibana

Skinship (スキンシップ) is Alexandra Corrin-Tachibana’s thrilling second collection and is the sequel to Salt bestseller, Sing me down from the dark (2022), featuring the same feisty protagonist, dark humour, and moments that will make you cry. ‘Skinship’ derives from the Japanese ‘loan word’ fusing ‘skin’ and ‘kinship’. The word can refer to intimate situations, such as bathing naked with friends or lovers in Japanese hot springs, and this bold and sensuous collection does not hold back.

Embedded in the word skinship is the word ‘kin’ and the poet explores motherhood, relationships between women, and relationships with partners (including controlling partners, narcissistic abuse and cross-cultural relationships). However, as always in Corrin-Tachibana’s writing, there is a balance of light and dark. There are many hilarious moments, such as in her imaginative zuihitsu titled ‘Madam Gout’ which provide a lovely contrast with darker pieces and more tender moments when writing about her son.

The collection is set against the Japanese cultural landscape and is strongly influenced by Japanese women writers including Sei Shōnagon, Yoko Ono, Machiko Tawara and Kimiko Hahn. Threaded through the collection is a witty and surreal sequence after Yoko Ono, including Artemesia prize shortlisted poem, ‘How to Enjoy Kyoto’.

This compelling and formally innovative narrative showcases beautiful Japanese poetical forms, such as her Winchester-prize shortlisted zuihitsu, ‘Skinship’, as well as haiku and tanka, which Corrin-Tachibana completely makes her own. Her collection is rooted in her lived experience of Japan and her love of Japanese literature, and the poems also explore her reconnection with the country when she returned after a 15 year hiatus. The use of Japanese language and script in some poems, as well as the collage-like layout of her zuihitsu, make ‘Skinship’ visually appealing, as well as a compelling read.

‘Pillow Book Talk’ Winner of Verve Poem of the Month, February 2026 Alex has formed a poem that questions, praises, learns from, and speaks to Sei Shònagon, and from here, lets herself ‘follow the brush’ in response to the original The Pillow BookThe poem is full of observations; sleep deprivation, aggressive intimacies, lists of ‘things’, and, ingeniously, contains even a poem on Tornados within the poem. The more we read this, the more immersed in it we are. It’s like a film.

-- Hayley Frances and Stuart Bartholomew

‘Pillow Book Talk’ Winner of Verve Poem of the Month, February 2026 Congratulations Alexandra, it’s a beautiful poem. I love the way you have used the form, like a whisper between sisters, or friends at a sleepover. Such a gorgeously direct and honest communication with Sei Shōnagan across oceans and centuries that contains such present truths.

-- Cheryl Moskowitz

‘Haibun for The One that Got Away’ Commended in the Buzzwords competition, 2025 This is a novel in a page. I admire the way the three poetic interludes each do very different things, how imagistic they are, and how the last of them leaves us with the tension of longing, of loss-in-presence. This is gutsy writing.

-- Rory Waterman

Alexandra Corrin-Tachibana, author of Sing me down from the dark (Salt, 2022), taught in Japan for 10 years. Currently, she delivers workshops for The Poetry Business and The Poetry School, and she presented on the zuihitsu form at the 2024 Japan Writers Conference. Alexandra is published in The North, PN Review, Magma, The Moth, Poetry Wales, and Anthropocene, and has been shortlisted for The Fish, Troubadour, Winchester, and Artemesia prizes. She has master’s degrees in Japanese and in Writing Poetry.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9781784633929
ISBN 10	1784633925
Title	Skinship
Author	Alexandra Corrin-Tachibana
Series	Salt Modern Poets
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	Salt Publishing
Year published	2026-09-14
Number of pages	80
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.