Gathering
On Sewing and the Fabric of Memory
Will be published approx. on 22. April 2027
Book
Hardback
288 pages
978-1-3997-5245-9 (ISBN)
Description
Told through personal encounters with cloth, Gathering is a meditation on slow sewing as a mode of creativity, connection, and resistance.
Sewing is physical. Sewing is all-consuming. These are things Nina Mingya Powles did not realise until she began teaching herself how to sew her own clothes in lockdown in London, far from the country of her birth. In the face of an ecological crisis driven by over-consumption, sewing is also political. For Powles, sewing becomes a form of solace and quiet resistance in the midst of growing anxiety about the impact of the fast fashion industry.
Gathering charts the author's journey of becoming a maker, exploring how the craft has helped steady her mental health and reshaped her relationship with her changing body. This book is a personal and political exploration of cloth and thread, asking: what if we confronted the reality of how our clothes are made? What if sewing could be more accessible to everybody-to all kinds of bodies? This is a book about the power of sewing and other slow forms of making, about the material fibres that make up our everyday lives, and the layers of history and memory threaded into them.
PRAISE FOR NINA MINGYA POWLES:
'Funny, compact and beautifully written' New Statesman on Tiny Moons
'Remarkable' Robert Macfarlane on Small Bodies of Water
'Compelling and beautiful' Bhanu Kapil on Magnolia
Sewing is physical. Sewing is all-consuming. These are things Nina Mingya Powles did not realise until she began teaching herself how to sew her own clothes in lockdown in London, far from the country of her birth. In the face of an ecological crisis driven by over-consumption, sewing is also political. For Powles, sewing becomes a form of solace and quiet resistance in the midst of growing anxiety about the impact of the fast fashion industry.
Gathering charts the author's journey of becoming a maker, exploring how the craft has helped steady her mental health and reshaped her relationship with her changing body. This book is a personal and political exploration of cloth and thread, asking: what if we confronted the reality of how our clothes are made? What if sewing could be more accessible to everybody-to all kinds of bodies? This is a book about the power of sewing and other slow forms of making, about the material fibres that make up our everyday lives, and the layers of history and memory threaded into them.
PRAISE FOR NINA MINGYA POWLES:
'Funny, compact and beautifully written' New Statesman on Tiny Moons
'Remarkable' Robert Macfarlane on Small Bodies of Water
'Compelling and beautiful' Bhanu Kapil on Magnolia
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Hodder & Stoughton
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
Trade binding
Illustrations
N/A
Dimensions
Height: 222 mm
Width: 138 mm
Thickness: 15 mm
Weight
344 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-3997-5245-9 (9781399752459)
Copyright in bibliographic data is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or its licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
E-Book
approx. 04/2027
Sceptre
€12.99
Not yet available
Person
Nina Mingya Powles (she/her, b. 1993, Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand) is a writer and poet of mixed white and Malaysian Chinese heritage. Currently based in London, she is the author of a food memoir, Tiny Moons: A Year of Eating in Shanghai (2020) and a collection of essays, Small Bodies of Water, the winner of the inaugural Nan Shepherd Prize, published by Canongate in 2021. Her debut poetry collection Magnolia (2020) was published in the US, UK and New Zealand and was a finalist for the Ondaatje Prize, the New Zealand Book Awards, and the Forward Prize for Best First Collection. She has also published many poetry zines and pamphlets, most recently Slipstitch (Guillemot Press, 2024), about quilts and hand-stitching. Nina has taught zine-making and writing workshops for many schools, universities and organisations including the Museum of the Home, Cambridge University, Good Chance Theatre and Verve Poetry Festival.