Blood Salt Spring: The Debut Collection from Edinburgh's Makar

(Paperback)

---

Publishing Details

Classifications

Physical Properties

Description

From Hannah Lavery, soon to be appointed Edinburghs new Makar.

In a moment that is demanding you to constantly choose your side, how do you find your humanity, your own voice, when you are being pushed to find safety in numbers

Blood Salt Spring is a meditation on where we are exploring ideas of nation, race and belonging. Much of the collection was written in lockdown and speaks to that moment, the isolation and the traumas of 2020 but it also looks to find some meaning and makes an attempt to heal the pain and vulnerabilities that were picked and cut open again in the recent cultural shifts and political wars.

Organised into three sections this book takes the reader on a journey from the old inherited wounds, the trauma of tearing open again these chasms within recent discourses and events, to a hopeful spring, where pain and trauma can be laid down and a new future can be imagined.

In this collection, the poet has sought to heal these salted wounds, and move out of winter and into spring into hope.

Reviews

'hers is a voice which speaks to and for the conflicted conscience of Scotland around issues of identity, race, justice and belonging with a power and authenticity like perhaps no other'

-- Malcolm Jack * The Scotsman *

'moves from poignant lyricism to Informationist-style interrogation of language'

-- Stuart Kelly

'Much of it written through lockdown, it has an interesting take on a world of isolation'

* Scots Magazine *

'Blood Salt Spring offers a personal response to wider cultural conversations from national identity to personal autonomy, divisive politics to mothering during lockdown. Its terrain is vast. Its perspective unequivocal'

-- Rachel Loughran * The National *

'With much of the collection written in lockdown, its poetry that feels both of the moment while reaching out and attempting to find meaning, to move forward, and find hope'

* Books From Scotland *

'A terrific debut poetry collection'

* BBC Radio Scotland, Afternoon Show *

'Important issues including nation, race and belonging are at the heart of Blood Salt Spring.'

* East Lothian Courier *

'Hannah Lavery stole our hearts and set our minds alight with her breath-taking pamphlets and the astonishing Lament for Sheku Bayoh for years we've been hungry for more & now finally: Blood Salt Spring is HERE!

* The Lighthouse Bookshop *

An absolutely amazing collection it blew me away. It feels monumental and fleeting at the same time'

-- Denise Mina

'Hannah has been crucial in carving out spaces and stages for writers of colour in Scotland, and her own debut collection (Blood, Salt, Spring) is a triumph'

-- Michael Pedersen * Electric Literature *

'Hannah Lavery's debut collection shows her deft ability to marry the personal with the political'

-- Andres N. Ordorica * The Skinny *

Author Bio

Hannah Lavery is an award-winning poet and playwright. Her pamphlet, Finding Seaglass was published by Stewed Rhubarb and her poem, Scotland Youre No Mine was selected as one Scotlands Best Poems for 2019. The Drift, her highly acclaimed autobiographical lyric play toured Scotland as part of the National Theatre of Scotlands Season 2019 and in 2020, she was selected by Owen Sheers as one of his Ten Writers Asking Questions That Will Shape Our Future for the International Literature Showcase, a project from the National Writing Centre and the British Council. Her second lyric play Lament for Sheku Bayoh premiered at Edinburgh International Festival in 2021. She was also appointed Edinburgh Makar in November 2021 for a three year term. She is an associate artist with the National Theatre of Scotland and one of the winners of the Peggy Ramsay/Film4 Award 2022.