
Paravane
New and Selected Poems 1996-2003
Frances Presley(Author)
Salt Publishing
Will be published approx. on 1. March 2004
Book
Paperback/Softback
140 pages
978-1-84471-042-3 (ISBN)
Description
This book contains a long, new sequence of poems and prose by Frances Presley, as well as a selection of her work since 1996. It provides an important opportunity to see her recent work as a whole, and to appreciate how different sequences interrelate and develop, both in form and theme. Paravane includes 'Private writing: Vermont journal 1996', originally published with drawings by Peterjon Skelt, and the important email collaboration with Elizabeth James: 'Neither the One nor the Other'. There are also extracts from 'automatic cross stitch', an innovative collaboration with the artist Irma Irsara focused on dress and fashion; and from the recently published 'Somerset letters', which uses experimental prose to explore layers of landscape, language and love. There are two new sections of previously uncollected work. The first 'Uncollect' brings together some shorter new poems, including two responses to the work of the installation artist Jane Prophet. Paravane is also the title of a major new sequence, which is a response to the tragedy of 9/11 in New York through various experiments in sound and image. Paravane centres on a walk around the City of London where IRA bombs were detonated, exploring and constructing sites of resistance and dissent. There is a renarration of the legend of Saint Barbara, patron of architects, and other female saints are evoked and reinvented. The unfolding 'war on terrorism' and New Labour modernization are spun through and out of the sequence. Sites of resistance are also found outside the city, especially on the high fells in the far north of England. The sequence ends provisionally in Mother Julian's cell in Norwich, where the walls are porous and a new flame ignites a plastic language.
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Cambridge
United Kingdom
Illustrations
7 line art illustrations; 7 Illustrations
Dimensions
Height: 216 mm
Width: 140 mm
Thickness: 8 mm
ISBN-13
978-1-84471-042-3 (9781844710423)
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
Frances Presley was born in Derbyshire, and grew up in Lincolnshire and Somerset. She lives in a housing cooperative in north London, and the local fashion trade was the subject of her collaboration with the artist Irma Irsara, Automatic cross stitch (Other Press, 2000). She has also collaborated with the poet Elizabeth James in an email text and performance (Neither the One nor the Other, Form Books, 1999). She has written about her poetic practice and that of other British women poets, and is on the editorial board of How2. Her most recent sequence, Paravane, began with How2 communications post 9/11. This book brings together much of her new and published work since Linocut (Oasis, 1997).
Content
Paravane
Uncollect
from Somerset Letters
from automatic cross stitch
Neither the One nor the Other
Private writings
Uncollect
from Somerset Letters
from automatic cross stitch
Neither the One nor the Other
Private writings