In his latest collection, Ryan Van Winkle explores the themes of abandonment, imprisonment, generational incomprehension and the very notion of how we end up where we are.
The poet looks at his life through a lens to get closer to meditate on the anxieties and insecurities of a life, and how we remember and mis-remember, how memories and people can be difficult and at times hurtful to hold onto it. In reading this collection it becomes clear that although these recollections may be ordered, the emotions and impressions surrounding them are not.
About the Author :
Ryan Van Winkle, an American who has been living in Scotland for over 25 years, is an award-winning author, artist and producer based in Edinburgh. He is currently the Artistic Director of StAnza, Scotland's International Poetry Festival. His first collection, Tomorrow, We Will Live Here (Salt), won the Crashaw Prize. In 2015, his second collection, The Good Dark (Penned in the Margins), won the Saltire Society's Poetry Book of the Year award. His poems have appeared in The American Poetry Review, Modern Poetry in Translation and New Writing Scotland.
Review :
'Beautifully crafted, Van Winkle catalogues a life in still imagery, both haunting and inspiring'
'A sweetly melancholy meditation on the gaps in recollection that no record can hope to fill'
'Poems to return to again and again, like a box of photographs carried with you from house to house, country to country, life to life'
'An exceptional collection; poems that unfold and draw you inward to a place where only language, held gently and confidently, can lead you'
'Thoughtful and perceptive . . . Through stunning ekphrastic poems, Van Winkle examines memory – its fragility and fallibility – with tender attention'
'A tenderly crafted collection. Beautiful, surprising and bittersweet'
'A deeply rich and nostalgic collection driven by story and heart'
