Description
Book SynopsisWinner of the James Berry Poetry Prize
In her award-winning debut collection Kaycee Hill frankly explores coming of age as a woman – and the intricacies of connection and memory – against an urban-pastoral landscape.
Raging with vivid, smoky lyricism and full-blooded imagery, Kaycee Hill’s poems are both a beginning and a continuation. Reflecting on her life and those in it, as well as first-times, underground scenes and the female body, she looks towards what is unflinchingly personal, and also outwards: towards family and strangers, nature and place, and a world that shapeshifts before us.
Hot Sauce is a searing first collection that captures the visceral vulnerabilities of navigating life on the cusp.
Trade ReviewKaycee Hill’s urban eco-poems are always awake to the beauty that can be found in unexpected places – from a makeshift bird-feeder to her mother’s 'cinnamon stick / fingers busy making roll-ups'. In this thrilling first collection, her lyric imagination takes us on a journey through the complexities of coming of age in a small working-class town. The heat of Hill’s sensuous imagery 'rages down the throat', searing our tastebuds and leaving us craving more. -- Aviva Dautch
From dancehalls, grime raves, to prisons, kitchens and gardens, Kaycee Hill’s poems excavate an archive of memories with synaesthetic dexterity. A robin’s red breast transforms into “the thumping heart of a young naked ash tree”. And queuing crowds become “shoals of black sea bass". These poems of place transform the contemporary into a mythic lyrical landscape, where images like "I felt one hundred hymens breaking like bird’s skulls" conjure up a rich surreal tapestry with dark folkloric undertones. Nature is a vivid backdrop with filmic effect. The iconic music of Sade, Corrine Bailey Rae, Genuine, Diana Ross and the Supremes demarcate era and time. Kaycee Hill’s poems linger on the tongue like hot pepper sauce. -- Malika Booker
Table of ContentsFOR YOU (FOR YOU) 11 Muse 12 A Caged Thing Freed 13 What Love Looks Like 14 Naturalist 15 Kitchen 16 Shapeshift 18 The Collector 19 Dreams of Home 20 Ghost 21 For the Hive 22 Scuffing 24 The Gift 25 Last shift at St Wins MY GEOGRAPHIES 29 Polystyrene Cup 30 A SIDE 32 B SIDE 33 Elegy for Buster 34 Night Shift 35 In the queue at Motion 36 At the train station a pigeon 37 Day Visit at HMP Erlestoke 38 Blessed 40 Sleep Paralysis 41 Leaving St. Ives 42 A poem 43 Seal Island, St Ives 44 Oshun 45 Self Care HAS IT COME TO THIS? 48 Flying Ants 49 Fresh Set 50 A Woman on Shirley High Street 51 On Grief 52 Urban Kites 53 The Marlands, Midday 54 Hot Sauce 55 Bully 56 To Get Inside 57 Vignettes about the New Forest 58 Little Deaths 60 Pendulum 62 Spring Begins in Leigh Woods SOMEWHERE BETWEEN THE LIGHT I FEEL THE SUN 64 Leo Season 65 Core Memories in Málaga 66 Strip Tease 67 Recurring Dream 68 Remember 69 Lauryn Hill at Boomtown 70 Come Along with Me 72 Hooked 73 Dad, Eighteen 74 Hallowed 75 Bedroom Witch 76 A Memory 77 Roots 78 Free Party 79 Makeshift
