Description
Book SynopsisClaire Askew’s electrifying second collection is an investigation of power: the power of oppressive systems and their hold over those within them; the power of resilience; the power of the human heart. It licks flame across the imagination, and rewrites narratives of human desire. It is a collection for anyone who has ever run through their life ‘backwards/ in the dark,/ with no map’ – these bright poems illuminate the way. How to burn a woman throngs with witches, outsiders, and women who do not fit the ordinary moulds of the world. It is a collection which traces historic atrocities, and celebrates the lives of those accused of witchcraft with empathy, tenderness and rage. It lifts a mirror up to contemporary systems of oppression and, in language that is both vivid and accessible, asks hard questions of our current world. These poems also delve deep into love in all its forms: from infatuations to the bitter ending of relationships. They ask what it is we want, how we might go about getting it, and what its cost might be. How to burn a woman sweeps the world up in its arms and presents it: a rough bonfire of London buses, Salem streets, Edinburgh closes. Askew’s astute, incisive language lifts from every page, throwing sparks.
Trade ReviewIn this book of spells, Askew stirs together smart, modern poems about whisky, heartbreak and male-female relationships with a darker sequence about our “foremothers” who were persecuted as witches. How to burn a woman is full of hard-won wisdom and beauty. The vibe is Kim Addonizio joins a coven. -- Clare Pollard
Claire Askew doesn’t mince words: she revels in them, pretty or dirty, and hammers them into strange and kenspeckle amulets, talismans against loss, death, isolation…. Looking into the future with ‘no innocence’, haunted by the past, the allusive, mysterious work at the core of this collection will take Claire Askew far. -- Pippa Little * The Lake *
This changes things is, admirably, a feminist collection - deeply concerned with women's lives, in all their strength and vulnerability. But Askew has a capacious eye; in the slow-burning second half of the book... some strong poems documenting travel... suggest a poet whose next steps are attractively difficult to predict... Askew is the real thing, and everyone should buy this debut. -- Kathryn Gray * Magma *
Table of Contents9 Domonic 13 Nessie to the unaccompanied minor 14 Playing it cool 15 The flirt 16 Hand of Glory 18 Christopher’s rules for skimming stones, which are also rules for living 20 The women who’ve loved you 22 A Field Journal of Witches 24 Travel poem 27 Devils 29 The affair 31 Giles Corey 32 Thornfield 33 Knife 35 May 37 A spell for the departed 38 Sarah Good 41 A spell to honour your foremothers 43 You can’t always get what you want 44 Rodney 45 Motorcycle jacket 47 The neighbours of Ursula Kemp 49 Hot rod 50 Dean 52 Coming second 54 Merga Bien 55 A spell for the rejected 56 Mothers of sons 58 Show me again 60 Eunice Cole 62 Men 64 A spell for preparing to sleep alone in an unfamiliar house 66 Things men want to hear you say 68 Whisky 69 Watching the red kite trying to fly 70 Phone sex 72 Anne Askew 74 Men of the rack 76 Fletcher Mathers 78 Listening to Rainymood in Waverley Station 79 A spell for obedience 80 Janet Horne 81 Big hands 82 Library 83 A spell for the unbelieved 85 How to burn a woman 89 Foreplay 93 Acknowledgements
