Vandemonian by Cliff Forshaw
A detailed, impassioned poetic history of Van Dieman's land, Tasmania, from its European 'discovery' onwards. Poems use a variety of voices to convey the island's early story, where facts and contemporary quotes are bracketed beside imagined events, while exploring the truths of colonisation. Religion, geography and the unknown all play a part.
"As always, Cliff Forshaw's writing embodies a large intelligenceThese are poems of voyage, exertion and discovery, enjoying the challenge of unpredictable and unusual locations, both geographical and psychological. At the same time, they demonstrate grounded, dependable craft. They never trick the reader, but, witty and exuberant, send us on our poetic journeys with new imaginative maps." Carol Rumens
Cliff Forshaw left school at sixteen and worked in an abattoir before studying painting at art college and developing an interest in languages and European literatures at Warwick University. After various jobs in Spain, Mexico, Italy, Germany and New York, and freelance writing in London, he took an MA with Distinction in Renaissance Studies at Birkbeck College, London, and completed a doctorate on Elizabethan satireat Oxford. Since then,he has lived in Snowdonia and Yorkshire, and taught at Bangor, Sheffield and, from 2005, Hull University. Cliff hasbeen a writer-in-residence in California, Transylvania and Tasmania; twice a Hawthornden Writing Fellow; and winner of the Welsh Academi John Tripp Award. His collections include 'Trans' (The Collective Press, Wales 2005) which culminates in a rewriting of the Metamorphoses - Ovid meets a gross-out freak circus to chat about everything from bodily modification to virtual survival. A recent chapbook 'Wakewas' joint-winner of the Flarestack Pamphlet Prize 2009. Cliff continues to paint, and his work has been exhibited in the UK and USA. He has also made two short films to accompany poetry collaborations:Drift was shown at the Humber Mouth Literature Festival 2008; 'Under Travelling Skies' (Kingston Press, 2012) won the first Larkin 25 Words award in 2012. He has edited and contributed poems, paintings, photographs and other artwork to half-a-dozen collaborative projects focusing on Hull and the surrounding coast, the most recent being the Humber Mouth Festival Major Commission Sketches, Dispatches, Hull Tales and Ballads (Kingston Press 2012). He has published translations from a number of languages, and contributed to books on translation and myth. Recently translations of Cliff's own poems, into Chinese and Romanian, have also started to appear. He also writes fiction.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9781904614609 |
| ISBN 10 | 1904614604 |
| Title | Vandemonian |
| Author | Cliff Forshaw |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Paperback |
| Publisher | Arc Publications |
| Year published | 2013-01-15 |
| Number of pages | 80 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |