Life Without Air

SHORTLISTED FOR THE TS ELIOT PRIZE FOR POETRY 2020 WINNER OF THE SCOTTISH BOOK AWARDS’ POETRY BOOK OF THE YEAR A POETRY BOOK SOCIETY RECOMMENDATION SHORTLISTED FOR THE JOHN POLLARD FOUNDATION INTERNATIONAL POETRY PRIZE “Whip-smart, sonically gorgeous” - Rae Armantrout, author of the Pulitzer Prize winning Versed When Louis Pasteur observed the process of fermentation, he noted that, while most organisms perished from lack of oxygen, some were able to thrive as ‘life without air’. In this capricious, dreamlike collection, characters and scenes traverse states of airlessness, from suffocating relationships and institutions, to toxic environments and ecstatic asphyxiations. Both compassionate and ecologically nuanced, this innovative collection bridges poetry and prose to interrogate the conditions necessary for survival.