The Lives of Z by Olivia McCannon
Pavilion Poetry
Published 28th April 2025.
Olivia McCannon's latest collection is shot through with questions. How ecological is English? How do you read an unreadable world, or a transforming planet? The Lives of Z is an inventory of poem-artefacts gleaned from the spoilheaps of a speculative future. Each "find' emerges with the randomness of any archaeological discovery, in that moment when its significance hangs in the air. Except that here, life is growing out of the data. In this space of provocation and encounter, the reader is invited to play Z's game and crash-test different ways of being in language. What will I have been? Who or what owns the "collective possessive'? How many life forms can inhabit the same pronoun? Z, the creative principle of life multitudinous, networked and irreverent is running the experiment, in an unrepentantly "bad science' mode. Salvaged from what can't be thrown away, these poems meet uncertainty with creativity, searching for the freedom and the words to reclaim human and earthly connections.
MEMBERS ENJOY 25% OFF ALL POETRY BOOKS
Join the Poetry Book Society for 25% off all books
Join the Poetry Book Society for 25% off all books