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Clare Shaw

Straight Ahead

Clare Shaw

Publication Date : 28 Sep 2006

ISBN: 9781852247508

Pages: 65
Size :216 x 138mm
Rights: World

Straight Ahead is Clare Shaw’s first collection. Firmly located in the social and physical landscape of northern England, the poems capture intimacy, loss, fragmentation and delight – being alive in all its colours. The book follows the trajectory of a life through childhood, breakdown and love, recording on the way the million sufferings and hopes of everyday life.

The poems move rapidly between contrasting experiences and emotions, from violence to madness, yet are held together by Clare Shaw’s ever-present love of language, her celebration of sound, rhythm and imagery. These are poems that are – like the lives and the landscapes they record – by turn harsh and tender, humorous and bleak. Dynamic, darkly humorous, and exactingly detailed, they invite the reader into a rich and complex world.

‘The energy and vivacity of Clare Shaw’s writing, its colloquial power, frame of reference and sheer sound is enough to mark her out as one of the most talented young poets to appear in recent years. Hers is a natural gift that speaks as it sings. It confronts the world with knowledge, pity, melancholy, affection and a kind of sympathetic fury, as if the world were shards and fragments that could be gathered into the ear and sung from the heart. And the remarkable thing is that she does gather it and sing it, that she imbues it with the passion owing to it’ – George Szirtes

‘Hold your breath when you read Clare Shaw’s poems. Startling, searing, scorching, this is an emotional blast of a book’ – Jackie Kay

 


  

BOOKS BY Clare Shaw

Flood

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Flood

Publication Date : 21 Jun 2018

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Head On

Clare Shaw

Head On

Publication Date : 22 Nov 2012

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Towards a General Theory of Love

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Towards a General Theory of Love

Publication Date : 26 May 2022

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Related News & Publicity

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Clare Shaw Readings and Events

Clare Shaw Readings and Events

The joint launch event for Towards a General Theory of Love is available on YouTube.

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News & Publicity


Clare Shaw on BBC Radio 3 & Radio 4

Clare Shaw on BBC Radio 3 & Radio 4

Clare Shaw interviews on The Verb & on Planet Poetry podcast in 2020; new short drama, Burnley, broadcast on Radio 4's United Kingdoms, 17 Jan 22.

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