Aoife Lyall's debut collection Mother, Nature explores the tragic and tender experiences of pregnancy and early motherhood, from ante-natal complications and the devastating pain of miscarriage to the overwhelming joy of healthy delivery and healthy infancy. Born and raised in Dublin, Aoife Lyall now lives in the Scottish Highlands. Shortlisted for the Hennessy New Writing Awards in 2016 and 2018, her work has appeared in many literary magazines.
By:
Aoife Lyall
Imprint: Bloodaxe Books Ltd
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions:
Height: 216mm,
Width: 138mm,
ISBN: 9781780375182
ISBN 10: 1780375182
Pages: 80
Publication Date: 29 June 2021
Audience:
General/trade
,
ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
9 Prefatory note 13 Sounds of that day 14 Ubi Sunt 15 Hospital Canteen 16 The grave diggers 17 No flowers: by request 18 Haunted 19 Month’s Mind 20 Octopus 21 Silent Movie 22 Your name 23 Starry Night 24 Hermit Crab 25 Vaudeville 26 Easter Sunday 27 Epithalamion 28 Labour 29 After birth 30 Epidural 31 Treasure island 32 Syzygy 33 Caledonian sleeper 34 Ships in the night 35 Minute and far away 36 Soft spot 37 Fully Comp 38 Silt 39 Saturn 40 equilibrium (noun) 41 Aqua vitae 42 ‘Origami…’ 43 Sacrum 44 Conditions of Sale 45 Autumn 46 Trapeze 47 3oz 48 Seabed 49 Ithaca 50 Picking oakum 51 Loch Ness 52 Phonograph 53 Lighthouse 54 Today is a day for other people’s stories 55 Baby blanket 56 Marlfield House 57 The Wanderers 58 The ducks 59 Devoted 60 On the cusp 61 Absolution 62 While the others are away 63 Squall 64 Nita, Sri Lanka, 2005 65 Brough of Birsay, Orkney 66 Mother, Nature 67 Hatchling 68 Tree frog 69 Our neck of the woods 70 Cuckoo 71 Maternity leave 73 Acrania 77 Notes 79 Acknowledgements
Aoife Lyall is an Irish poet living in the Scottish Highlands. Shortlisted for the Hennessy New Writing Awards in 2016 and 2018, her work has appeared in Acumen, Banshee Lit, The Irish Times, Magma, Poetry Ireland Review, and Under the Radar, among others. Her debut collection Mother, Nature (Bloodaxe Books, 2021) explores the tragic and tender experiences of pregnancy and early motherhood.
Reviews for Mother, Nature
There are poems in this collection that knocked me clean to the ground, as others offered me a warm hand up and others still, which stroked my backbone as I sobbed. The subject is crucial, but it's the beauty of the poems which hold it all together. 'By law she carries you' is a line that I will never get out of my skin. * Hollie McNish * Here’s a debut collection with a voice that is very much its own, and a way of writing that is subtly daring. These poems are staggeringly tender. They are open, vulnerable and emotionally raw – and with this, they are poetically precise, exactly crafted gems. These are poems that want to give to the reader – my advice is to open this book and let them. -- Niall Campbell In Aoife Lyall's beautiful, intimate debut collection, poignant and heart-rending personal experience nestles beside profound love and hard-earned wisdom. -- Helen Sedgwick
