indwelling
Published on 26. September 2013
Book
Paperback/Softback
64 pages
978-1-85224-980-9 (ISBN)
Description
Denise Levertov described Gillian Allnutt's poems as 'at once hard and delicate, like wrought iron'. Both serious and light in touch, humane and profound, this new collection explores the manifestations of the Spirit, tracing it back through the familiar world of Christianity to its roots in the shamanic. This journey goes 'about and roundabout': living in past and present simultaneously; seeking to marry masculine and feminine - in the figure of Mary Magdalene, say, or those of the almost ghostly mother and son in 'Steppe' or 'In Armenia'. The language of these poems inhabits the state, the indwelling, of meditation - that nest of thin air - berthing what, a moment ago, was neither here nor there. indwelling is Gillian Allnutt's first new collection since Wolflight (2007), included in her Bloodaxe retrospective How the Bicycle Shone: New & Selected Poems.
Reviews / Votes
'What is most attractive about her work is that she is never solemn about the spiritual life which fascinates her' - Helen Dunmore, Observer.'Hers are original poems, scrupulous, unflashy, meditative, pushing at the ineffable, peculiarly inside language, earning their hard-won spiritual insights and flaring with sudden illuminations that are sustaining for all of us' - Michael Laskey, Aldeburgh Poetry Festival.'She's an original, though, ascetic and startling' - Sean O'Brien, Sunday Times.'[Her] reticence has increased with each book of poetry and forms the clearest line of development in her work' - Stephen Matterson, Metre.'Gillian Allnutt is a quietly original poet who has followed an uncompromising path. In its inwardness, its emblematic use of nature and its intense spiritual quest, her poetry is in the line of Hopkins and Geoffrey Hill. Her tone and verbal music is quite her own' - Peter Forbes, Contemporary Writers.More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Tyne and Wear
United Kingdom
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Unsewn / adhesive bound
Dimensions
Height: 211 mm
Width: 137 mm
Thickness: 5 mm
Weight
113 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-85224-980-9 (9781852249809)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Gillian Allnutt was born in London but spent half her childhood in Newcastle upon Tyne. In 1988 she returned to live in the North East. Before that, she read Philosophy and English at Cambridge, and then spent the next 17 years living mostly in London. From 1983 to 1988 she was poetry editor of City Limits magazine. Her collections Nantucket and the Angel and Lintel were both shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize. Poems from these collections are included in her Bloodaxe retrospective How the Bicycle Shone: New & Selected Poems (2007), which draws on six published books plus a new collection, Wolf Light, and was a Poetry Book Society Special Commendation. Her most recent collections, both from Bloodaxe, are indwelling (2013) and wake (2018). She has also published Berthing: A Poetry Workbook (NEC/Virago, 1991), and was co-editor of The New British Poetry (Paladin, 1988). From 2001 to 2003 she held a Royal Literary Fund Fellowship at Newcastle and Leeds Universities. She won the Northern Rock Foundation Writer's Award in 2005 and received a Cholmondeley Award in 2010. Since 1983 she has taught creative writing in a variety of contexts, mainly in adult education and as a writer in schools. In 2009/10 she held a writing residency with The Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture (now Freedom From Torture) in the North East, working with asylum seekers in Newcastle and Stockton. In 2013/14 she taught creative writing to undergraduates on the Poetry and Poetics course in the English Department of Durham University. She lives in County Durham. Gillian Allnutt was awarded the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry 2016 in February 2017. The Medal is awarded for excellence in poetry, and was presented to Gillian Allnutt by The Queen.