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The Deadheading Diaries

In this first full collection from Lisa Matthews, The Deadheading Diaries forms an ambitious narrative sequence of poems that explore the hidden histories of relationships – romantic, sexual, familial – over several generations.

“Refreshing in its originality and integrity, The Deadheading Diaries happily disrupts the surface of things. Unused to such plain talking, we are taken by surprise, stirred by these layered narratives of departure and return. The structure of the collection as a whole reflects the aesthetic of the individual poems – one of braided language, unencumbered with irrelevance, acknowledging the beauty of everyday truths. This is new writing from Lisa Matthews that resists limit and constraint with a natural repertoire of mischief, the erotic and sturdy interrogation.” : Linda France :

 

“Here’s a bold poet who wouldn’t hesitate to put to put her uncomfortable childhood in its place yet has to do all in her verbal power to escape the grasp of a grandmother’s quietly spoken order: ‘Let me see you hand’. Lisa Matthews is matter of fact and mysterious by turns, hiding behind a deadpan humour, hinting at stories scant and scurrilous. She’s wilfully complex here and there, yet hers is a touching wilfulness that allows ‘the shy wet earth’ to shine through. Hers is ‘a voice wind-lined and moving out across flattened sand’. Catch it if you can." : Gillian Allnutt :

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Postcard from a Waterless Lake

"I want to do with words what my father does with wood." Lisa Matthews

Postcard from a Waterless Lake is a Branch Lines book – from a series published by
: Diamond Twig : to promote work that is exciting, unusual and deserves a wider audience.

 

“Lisa Matthews is an immediate and distinctive poet; her tone can be passionate, witty, or dislocating by turns. She can draw you effortlessly into very human, very complex atmospheres and moods – a rare skill" : W N Herbert :

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