The Other City

Disgrifiad Cymraeg / Welsh Description

Casgliad cyntaf o gerddi Rhiannon Hooson, bardd ifanc sy'n byw ar y ffin rhwng Cymru a Lloegr. Mae ei chyfrol The Other City yn cynnig cerddi urddasol a chain yn llawn manylder a threiddgarwch, boed hynny mewn golygfeydd o chwedloniaeth Roegaidd neu hanes Cymru yn ogystal â cherddi am berthynas bersonol.

Disgrifiad Saesneg / English Description

Seren books presents the debut collection from Rhiannon Hooson, a young poet based in the Welsh Marches. The Other City offers us elegant, artful verse of precision and insight. This is a poet that can re-imagine scenes from Greek myth, from Welsh history, and make them as urgent and compelling as her poems about personal relationships.

Dosbarthu

Byddwn yn dosbarthu eitemau sydd mewn stoc o fewn 3 diwrnod gwaith, fel arfer drwy Royal Mail Tracked 48. Ar gyfer archebion o flaen llaw, byddwn yn dosbarthu’r eitem o fewn 3 diwrnod gwaith ar ôl ei derbyn gan ein cyflenwr.

Dispatch

In-stock items will be dispatched within 3 business days, usually by Royal Mail Tracked 48. For pre-orders, we’ll dispatch within 3 business days of receiving the item from our supplier.

Bywgraffiad yr Awdur / Author Biography

Rhiannon Hooson was born in Mid Wales in 1979, where she lived until moving to the north of England in 1998. She studied and later taught at Lancaster University, where she was awarded first an MA in Creative Writing (with Distinction), then a PhD in Poetry. Her first pamphlet, This Reckless Beauty, was published in 2004, and in 2008 she received an Eric Gregory Award from the Society of Authors. Her work has appeared in a number of literary magazines and anthologies. She now lives in the Welsh marches after time spent living in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.

Adolygiad y Cyhoeddwr / Publisher Review

The Other City is the debut poetry collection from Rhiannon Hooson, a gifted young poet from Wales. The author is a careful conjurer of scenes from myth and history, as in 'Elan' which imagines the afterlife of the Welsh village drowned by the building of a reservoir. Figures like Zeus and Ariadne in 'Bulls' become intimates while close relationships are seen with a cool, even ruthless clarity, giving them the curious power of myth or folk-tale. Similarly, exotic places: Mongolia, where the author lived, Russia, Egypt, Helsinki, are referred to as if we might well know them; we are able to move about the planet with the same ease that we move through history. But the tone of this work is always urgent, close, pressing, important. The voice has a compelling authority. There is always the sense of interrogation, of uneasy alliance with forms and appearances and with the promises of a 'civilised' society. These poems are also steeped in seasons and weathers, befitting an author raised in Mid-Wales. Winter arrives “There's cold in the bones of the year” and “...black lambs sleep at the edge of the wood.” Readers will admire the integrity and the artful accuracy of these gorgeous poems. “Uncompromising and sharp-edged. Her Welsh ancestry and heritage give her voice a strength which is rarely associated with women poets. Hers is an imagination fed and coloured by a variety of mythologies and histories. The rhythmic arch and span of the lines have an almost incantatory balance and counterpoise, and some of these poems could be the voice of the bard singing of battles, of mythic hunts, of heroic loves. If ever a book belied the idea of women's poetry as 'sentimental', this collection is it.” – Joanna Boulter on author's pamphlet.