The Barking Thing by Suzanne Batty
Suzanne Batty writes bold, flamboyant, risky poems which come from left field and Manchester, mixing dogs and people, mean streets and threats from inside. In her first book-length collection, The Barking Thing, the real and unreal are deliberately confused. The book creates a fantastical landscape in which actual experience can be transformed through archetypes and fairytales, urban myths and nightmares. The poems chart a journey from mental anguish to spiritual joy – and back again. The writing balances on a sharp edge between sanity and madness, between meaning and insignificance, with a dark humour and a tight grip on life. And through it all there is the wisdom of dog – a spiritual mentor who cocks a leg at doubt and despair.
Suzanne Batty has published two pamphlets with smith|doorstop books, Shrink (1997) and Thirty at Thirty (2016), and two book-length collections with Bloodaxe, The Barking Thing (2007) and States of Happiness (2018). She won the Poetry Society’s Anne Born Prize in its inaugural year, 2015. She studied for an MA in Creative Writing at Sheffield Hallam University and subsequently became a lecturer there. She has collaborated with musicians, visual artists, photographers and printmakers, and uses creative writing to support people experiencing and recovering from extreme mental distress. She lives in Manchester.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9781852247720 |
| ISBN 10 | 185224772X |
| Title | The Barking Thing |
| Author | Suzanne Batty |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Paperback |
| Publisher | Bloodaxe Books Ltd |
| Year published | 2007-06-28 |
| Number of pages | 64 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |