Of Heads and Hearts by Lucy Hamilton
“There is nobody writing prose poetry in any way close to Lucy Hamilton’s. Of Heads & Hearts is an intricate and rich collection that riffs on the interconnectedness of human relationship with the deft movements of a musical score. Here is a poet writing at the height of her talent using precise and controlled language to build toward a cumulative collage of characters, threads and associations all in conversation with one another. Of Heads & Heartsbecomes more and more rewarding with each re-reading, most notably the utter ache at the heart of the ‘Requiem for the Engineer’ sequence.” ―Kaddy Benyon
“With each new story, this collection extends its reach and increases its hold on the reader. The work of the poet here is not to claim authority over a series of elusive moments but to curate their collection. Eclectic, absorbing, tender and funny, the poems testify to the mind’s restlessness and its inventive responses to the world.” ―Lucy Sheerman
On Stalker : Shortlisted for the Felix Dennis Forward Prize for Best First Collection
“Here is a mind engaged yet disengaged, exploring ‘that line between the visible and the invisible’, steeped in art and literature, empathetic to those characters on the edge―the unsettled soul, both fictional (…) and real (the clochard ‘like a winter lizard clinging to the grille over the métro vent’). ―Linda Black
“Hamilton’s keen curiosity about language and its etymology, consistent receptivity to place and her skilful interplay between ghosts and dream-worlds and lived life, are all abiding pleasures of the work.” ―Ellen Cranitch, Poetry London
“Another element integral to these externalised reflections of the self is chance, that prophetic driver of coincidence. Hamilton explores this in poems explicitly about her twin sister... Prophecy, too, persists in the birth of meaning, and in etymologies. Words are stalked through the ages by their roots and, by using them, we are also dogged by what they signify… Ultimately these types of ‘stalking’ are what gives life its viscosity…” ―Sandeep Parmar, PN Review
“There is, by implication, an existential questioning of what it means to be a self. How much of what we are is defined by the way others perceive us? How is it possible to live authentically? Stalker is a courageous and beautiful book. It is one I shall keep returning to.” ―Ian Seed, Stride
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