Cover painting: Winter Sea III by Joan Eardley
a wise book that asks us to read slowly. Deryn Rees-Jones
There is mourning… there is questioning … there is also hope, and above all a boundless sense of curiosity Helen Tookey
extending what is possible for the human body within the more-than-human world Harriet Tarlo
melt is a love song to the ocean, of hope and grief, of belonging and longing. It begins in the north west of England, on the shores of Morecambe Bay, and ends in a future that may or may not have been foreseen in the Arctic. (more on my blog) Buy direct from me or from Waterloo Press
melt is one of seven books shortlisted for the 2021 Ledbury Munthe Poetry Prize for Second Collections
Best enjoyed in a darkened room, Towards a Stranding is a Hymas&Lewis soundscape of a poem from melt. You can listen to it here
image: Sally Slade Payne
A five minute excerpt from the zoom launch, 10th January 2021
The golden plankton : will you find one in your copy?
phytoplankton, those tiny marine plants, provide the oxygen for our every second breath. To celebrate their existence I’m slipping a paper re/de/construction of one in random copies of melt purchased from me.
Readers’ Feedback
one of the most glorious things in publishing a book is receiving emails from readers on how they found the book. Here are a few
The choice to make melt so sensual to hold, the cover tactile, the quality of the paper used, the pleasing spaces and layout. That’s before its read! You are reminding us to engage all our senses whatever we do
You’ve sent my brain off in a million directions in grappling with human and nonhuman voices and how we can understand anything and it feels like your book is a key. There is so much to think with and feel with in it, so many lines I want to read over and over and copy out
I’m struck by the vulnerabilities – suddenly reading that description of rescuing the octopus from the net as a kind of bloody birth image – the way that not-mother theme threads through (the two of you carrying the tree) – and how it sits with the extraordinary other levels of exploration of self/world/other – I keep thinking about this – the ways you are so highly tuned in to the interrelations of ‘you’ and ‘world’
melt is a wonderful book. Perfect for any time but especially right now.