Cyngor Llyfrau Cymru
We Could Be Anywhere by Now
We Could Be Anywhere by Now
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Disgrifiad Cymraeg / Welsh Description
Yn ei hail gasgliad o gerddi, mae Katherine Stansfield yn dwyn ynghyd ddarnau am leoliad a dadleoliad sy'n llawn o gomedi cam a thensiwn anesmwyth. Mae ei chyfnodau yng Nghymru, yr Eidal a Chanada ynghyd â dychweliad i sir ei geni yng Nghernyw wedi esgor ar gerddi sy'n ymhyfrydu yn yr hyn sy'n wahanol a'r hyn a gipglywir ynghyd â chomedi a dwyster bywyd beunyddiol.
Disgrifiad Saesneg / English Description
In her second collection, We Could Be Anywhere By Now , Katherine Stansfield brings us poems about placement and displacement full of both wry comedy and uneasy tension. Stints in Wales, Italy and Canada, plus return trips to her native Cornwall all spark poems delighting in the off-key, the overheard, the comedy and pathos of everyday life.
Manylion y cynnyrch / Product details
- ISBN 13
- 9781781725672
- Gwales Code
- gwales.com.9781781725672
- Gwerthwr / Vendor
- Cyngor Llyfrau Cymru
- Long Title
- We Could Be Anywhere by Now
- Awdur / Author
- Stansfield, Katherine
- Current Price ex VAT
- £9.99
- Current Price inc VAT
- £9.99
- Availability Status (EN)
- Available
- Availability Status (CY)
- Ar gael
- Dyddiad cyhoeddi / Publication Date
- 2020-06-11
- Cyhoeddwr / Publisher
- Seren
- Media Type (EN)
- Paperback / softback
- Media Type (CY)
- Clawr meddal
- Pages
- 72 pages
- Size
- 138 × 216 mm
- Language Code
- English
- Categori / Category
- CY: Barddoniaeth (yn Saesneg) | EN: Poetry (in English)
- Is-gategori / Subcategory
- CY: Beirdd Unigol (yn Saesneg) | EN: Individual Poets (in English)
Bywgraffiad yr Awdur / Author Biography
Katherine Stansfield is a poet and novelist. Originally from Cornwall, she lived in Aberystwyth in mid Wales for many years and is now based in Cardiff. She teaches for a number of universities and has been a Royal Literary Fund Fellow. She has published two previous works of poetry with Seren: 'Playing House' (2014) and a pamphlet 'All That Was Wood' (2018).
Adolygiad y Cyhoeddwr / Publisher Review
Katherine Stansfield’s We Could Be Anywhere By Now is a brilliant collection of poetry that questions our sense of identity, place and belonging. It’s in parts intensely personal, in others almost comedic, and is fully worth spending some time with. She has a skill for addressing the big issues with a light touch and keeping her sense of self on display, challenged, and almost up for debate. Raised in Cornwall and later living in mid-Wales, Stansfield is at odds with where she belongs. This collection opens with a comment originally posted on the Guardian website under one of her poems that had been published there. ‘Is she Welsh or English?’ the commenter asks. Stansfield’s poems go on to attempt to answer that. In fact, ‘Tick ONE answer only’ asks this question in its opening line. Variants are then asked (‘Is she Cornish or Welsh?’, ‘Is she Welsh or British?’, ‘Is she British or English?’) and these lines are interspersed with extracts from Olivia Newton-John's Wikipedia entry. Like Stansfield, Olivia Newton-John has a multitude of identities: famed for roles in American film, but Australian in real life. The effect is light-hearted, humorous and surprisingly effective. Are there easy black and white ways to answer these questions? No. In ‘Against blood’, a poem written in response to an article about blood tests determining ‘how Welsh you are’, Stansfield sums this up neatly: ‘To say this is the way / leaves me on the wrong side / of a locked door I’ll never open’. What is clear is that no matter what the blood tests say, or the side of the fence Olivia Newton-John comes down on, there is a huge impact that Wales has had on Stansfield. This becomes very clear in later poems when the sense of place is explored in some gems like ‘Messages in bottles found at Tan-y-Bwlch, Aberystwyth’ and ‘Old airfield, Davidstow’. It’s also explored physically in ‘after living in Wales my voice’ where she reflects on her voice and pronunciation changing. Divided into five sections, each loosely themed, the second portion of the book focuses on Stansfield’s attempts to learn Welsh. Again, her identity and ability to be welcomed into Wales are challenged in ‘Welsh has no K’ – a literal title that shows that even part of her name doesn’t fit with the Welsh alphabet. ‘If I bend I could be Catrin / but I can’t, I won’t. It’s Katherine...’. Language and place are major themes in this collection. Stansfield’s home and personal history is laid out in ‘Bodmin Moor time capsule’: her past as something to be left in a Quality Street tin, buried. Though place is not always dealt with so seriously; ‘Click here to upload your review’ explores a holiday rental home in half online review, half recollection. We Could Be Anywhere By Now really questions notions of insiders/outsiders and belonging in an entirely accessible and open way. It’s never quite clear whether Stansfield has found the answer to whether she’s English or Welsh, but it’s clear that it’s not up to anyone else to decide. Towards the end of the book this external validation of identity is truly highlighted as ridiculous in ‘At a party in the States’. An American in conversation with Stansfield questions whether she can truly be Welsh if she wasn’t aware that the actor Christian Bale is Welsh. Seeing her identity challenged on such laughable grounds casts light back throughout the book. Does the answer matter?
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