Low

This new collection from one of Britain's most innovative poets is an exploration of identity in the face of loss. At its heart is a series of poems about the desolation of miscarriage. These poems try to understand the many different means we use to come closer to articulating, and avoiding, experience. Drawing on the language of comedy, improvisation, drag and clown, Low interrogates humour’s role in enacting the possibility of change. A thought-provoking, irreverent and challenging book, Low exemplifies Chrissy Williams' ability to find 'seriousness in the apparently trivial and ephemeral' (Poetry Review). Chrissy Williams' first collection Bear (Bloodaxe) was one of The Telegraph's 50 Best Books of the Year in 2017. She has also published several pamphlets, one of which was shortlisted for the Michael Marks Award. Low is her second full-length collection).

Table of Contents:
11 on lipsyncing || for || your || life I 14 ! katya ! 15 the / perfect / woman 16 Bobbie Gentry, Shangri-Las, Sonic Youth 19 Tangled 20 poem = sorry 21 Beating Face 22 Signing Off II 24 Joke 25 Invisible Days 26 Voyage to the Copier Room 27 The Average Woman 28 Lamb 29 Making Kim-Joy’s Recipe for Multicoloured Shortbread Buttons 30 Aphra the Destroyer III 32 LIEBE IV 44 O Goat Moon V 48 LA Story 49 Improv 50 Magic Kingdom 51 Improv 52 Moon Illusion 53 Improv 54 At Griffith Observatory 56 Improv 57 Sunset and La Brea 58 Improv 59 Yellow Reflection 60 Improv VI 62 Dimpsy 63 Holdfasts 64 Introduction to Charts 71 Stingray Gambit

About the Author :
Chrissy Williams is a poet, editor and tutor living in London. Her father is English, her mother is Italian, and she was raised in Devon. She has published six pamphlets: Flying into the Bear (HappenStance Press, 2013) was shortlisted for the Michael Marks Awards, and Epigraphs (if p then q, 2014) was featured on Radio 3’s The Verb. Her poems and critical writing have appeared in various magazines, including The Poetry Review and Poetry London. She edited an anthology called Over the Line: An Introduction to Poetry Comics (Sidekick Books, 2015) and runs regular poetry comics workshops. She is Director of the annual Free Verse: Poetry Book Fair and currently works as a comics editor. Her first book-length collection, Bear, was published by Bloodaxe in 2017. Her second book-length collection Low is due from Bloodaxe in 2021.

Review :
Chrissy Williams is my new favourite poet. There is a profundity and care of phrasing here which is completely persuasive ... [a] sense of wonder and the rare combination of wit and sensitivity that is the hallmark of Williams’s style. Chrissy Williams is opening a new space for British experimental poetry ... with its generosity towards the reader via a light touch and warm experimentalism.