Description

Book Synopsis
WINNER OF THE 2014 FORWARD PRIZE FOR BEST COLLECTION In this collection, acclaimed Jamaican poet Kei Miller dramatizes what happens when one system of knowledge, one method of understanding place and territory, comes up against another. We watch as the cartographer, used to the scientific methods of assuming control over a place by mapping it, is gradually compelled to recognize--even to envy--a wholly different understanding of place, as he tries to map his way to the rastaman's eternal city of Zion. As the book unfolds the cartographer learns that, on this island of roads that "constrict like throats," every place-name comes freighted with history, and not every place that can be named can be found.

Trade Review
"Raise high the roofbeams, here comes a strong new presence in poetry... Kei Miller's voice speaks and sings with rare confidence and authority." --Lorna Goodison, Jamaican poet and professor, University of Michigan

Cartographer Tries to Map a Way to Zion

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    A Paperback / softback by Kei Miller

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      Book details

      Publisher Carcanet Press Ltd
      Published 30 May 2014
      ISBN-13 9781847772671
      978-1847772671
      ISBN-10 1847772676
      Also in:
      Poetry

      Description

      Book Synopsis
      WINNER OF THE 2014 FORWARD PRIZE FOR BEST COLLECTION In this collection, acclaimed Jamaican poet Kei Miller dramatizes what happens when one system of knowledge, one method of understanding place and territory, comes up against another. We watch as the cartographer, used to the scientific methods of assuming control over a place by mapping it, is gradually compelled to recognize--even to envy--a wholly different understanding of place, as he tries to map his way to the rastaman's eternal city of Zion. As the book unfolds the cartographer learns that, on this island of roads that "constrict like throats," every place-name comes freighted with history, and not every place that can be named can be found.

      Trade Review
      "Raise high the roofbeams, here comes a strong new presence in poetry... Kei Miller's voice speaks and sings with rare confidence and authority." --Lorna Goodison, Jamaican poet and professor, University of Michigan

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