The first collection of critical essays on the writing of Kathleen Jamie, one of the most outstanding poets of our times
Kathleen Jamie’s works are classics. No one can read Kathleen Jamie and remain indifferent or unchanged. Nationally acclaimed since her first major publications in the 1980s, Jamie stands out from other contemporary poets in her exceptional musicality, her strikingly unusual perspectives, her wry humour, translucent imagery and hard-edged economy of expression. These 16 newly commissioned critical essays and 7 previously unpublished poems by leading poets make up the first full-length study of Kathleen Jamie’s writing. The essays discuss all of her poetry collections, including
The Queen of Sheba
(1994),
Jizzen
(1999),
Mr and Mrs Scotland Are Dead: Poems 1980–94
(2002),
The Tree House
(2004) and
The Overhaul
(2012), as well as her travel writing, including
Among Muslims
(2002), her nature writing
,
Findings
(2005) and
Sightlines
(2012) and her collaborative work, including
Frissure
(2013), with artist Brigid Collins. Whether engaging with national politics, with gender, with landscape and place, or with humanity’s relation to the natural environment, this volume demonstrates that Kathleen Jamie’s verse teaches us new ways of listening, of seeing and of living in the contemporary world.
Readers will have access to 14 audio recordings of Kathleen Jamie reading from works discussed in the volume.
www.euppublishing.com/page/kathleenjamie/audio
Rachel Falconer
is Professor of Modern English Literature at the University of Lausanne.