by the lapels

(Paperback)

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By the Lapels is an oblique narrative told in fragments, scenes half-glimpsed. The poems unfold, adopting a variety of poetic personas, interrogating the body, interrogating memory, highlighting a tenuous sense of existence, a constant negotiation with being in the world. I was delighted by her ability to explore form and deploy a lucid, image-laden, evocative sense in her writing ... I kept thinking as I read these poems what they constantly achieve is aligned with the logic of criture fminine, and of what Irigaray promised us women writers would eventually achieve: Dont weep. One day we will learn to say ourselves. Jen Webb, University of Canberra The work is full of dark intimations and melancholy ... One is pummelled by life and weirdly joyous at the incredibly frank state of arrival of their own being in writing. Eileen Myles, the Sarah Broom Poetry Prize 2018

Author Bio

Wes Lee lives in Paekakariki. Her previous collections include Shooting Gallery (Steele Roberts Aotearoa, 2016), and a pamphlet Body, Remember (Eyewear Publishing, London, 2017). Her work has appeared in a wide array of literary journals and anthologies in New Zealand, Australia and the UK. She has won a number of awards for her writing including The BNZ Katherine Mansfield Literary Award; The Bronwyn Tate Memorial Award; The Dan Davin Literary Award. Most recently she was a finalist in the Sarah Broom Poetry Prize 2018, and the winner of the Poetry New Zealand Prize 2019 (Massey University Press).