Material Properties

(Paperback)

Publishing Details

Classifications

Physical Properties

Description

Material Properties asks what it might mean to interpret and translate wildness into human language and human understanding. The book is a multi-faceted and vital exploration of the non-human, the elemental and the borders between existences. Through poems of parenthood at a time of environmental emergency, and poetic versions of Old English riddles in which animals, objects and natural phenomena speak, the book poses essential questions about our relationship with the living world and with each other. Praise for previous work, Jackself, from T.S. Eliot Prize judges: 'a firework of a book, inventive, exciting and outstanding in its imaginative range and depth of feeling'.

Reviews

The poems have an unforced charm, delighting in the wonder that surrounds us * Guardian *

Author Bio

Jacob Polley is the author of four acclaimed poetry collections with Picador, The Brink, Little Gods, The Havocs, winner of the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize, and Jackself, which won the T.S. Eliot Prize in 2016. He was named one of the Next Generation poets in 2004, and his first novel, Talk of the Town, was published in 2009. Born in Carlisle in Cumbria, he now lives with his family on the North East coast and teaches at Newcastle University. Material Properties is his fifth collection.