The Barking Thing
Published on 28. June 2007
Book
Paperback/Softback
64 pages
978-1-85224-772-0 (ISBN)
Description
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.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Tyne and Wear
United Kingdom
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Dimensions
Height: 216 mm
Width: 138 mm
Thickness: 3 mm
Weight
233 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-85224-772-0 (9781852247720)
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Schweitzer Classification
Person
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.