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How to burn a woman

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( 80 ratings, 14 reviews)
Book Hero Magic crafted this summary to help describe this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Summary
How to burn a woman is Claire Askew's electrifying poetry collection exploring power—oppressive systems, resilience, and human desire. Featuring witches, outsiders, and women outside societal norms, it traces historic atrocities and reflects on contemporary oppression with empathy, tenderness, and rage. The poems delve into love's many forms and question its costs, illuminating dark paths with vivid, accessible language.
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Format: Paperback / softback
$4800

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Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?

This collection is ideal for readers interested in contemporary poetry that tackles feminism, history, and social justice with passion and lyricism.

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The poems in Claire Askew’s electrifying second collection concern witches, outsiders, and women who don’t fit into society. The settings range from London buses and Edinburgh alleyways to the streets of Salem, Massachusetts. Also a novelist, Askew is known for her award-winning DI Birch Scottish crime series published by Hodder.

Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description

Winner of the Scottish Poetry Book of the Year 2022 (Scotland's National Book Awards).

Claire 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.

Book Hero Magic summarised reviews for this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! HOW HAS THIS BEEN REVIEWED?

Reviewers praise Askew's compelling blend of modern themes and darker histories, describing the collection as full of hard-won wisdom and beauty. Clare Pollard likens it to 'Kim Addonizio joins a coven,' highlighting its rich language and emotional depth. Pippa Little notes its allusive, mysterious qualities, while Kathryn Gray calls Askew 'the real thing,' a poet of breadth and power.

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Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9781780375724

Publisher: Bloodaxe Books Ltd

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 21 October 2021

Country: United Kingdom

Imprint: Bloodaxe Books Ltd

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Width: 138.0mm

Height: 216.0mm

Weight: 250g

Pages: 80

About the Author

Claire Askew was born in 1986 and grew up in the rural Scottish Borders. She has lived in Edinburgh since 2004, and holds a PhD in Creative Writing & Contemporary Women's Poetry from the University of Edinburgh. Her poems have appeared in numerous publications, including The Guardian, Poetry Scotland, PANK, The Edinburgh Review and Be The First To Like This: New Scottish Poetry (Vagabond Voices, 2014), and have been selected twice for the Scottish Poetry Library's Best Scottish Poems of the Year. In 2013 she won the International Salt Prize for Poetry, and in 2014 was runner-up for the inaugural Edwin Morgan Poetry Award for Scottish poets under 30 for an earlier version of her first book-length collection, This changes things, which was published by Bloodaxe in 2016. She was shortlisted for the Edwin Morgan Poetry Award for a second time in 2016. This changes things was also shortlisted for the Saltire Society First Book of the Year Award 2016, the Seamus Heaney Centre Prize for First Full Collection 2017 and the Michael Murphy Memorial Prize 2017. Claire has been a Scottish Book Trust Reading Champion (2016/7), a Jessie Kesson Fellow (2017) and the Writer in Residence at the University of Edinburgh (2017-2019). Also a novelist, her award-winning Edinburgh-based DI Birch series is published by Hodder & Stoughton. Her second full-length collection, How to burn a woman, is published by Bloodaxe in 2021.

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