{"title":"Katrina Porteous","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eKatrina Porteous\u003c\/strong\u003e crafts works that resonate deeply with the natural world and the cultural tapestry of place. Through her evocative writing, readers can explore the rich interplay of landscape, history, and human experience, often drawing inspiration from coastal and rural settings.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eHer books invite reflection on time, memory, and the arts, blending lyrical language with thoughtful observation. Those drawn to arts and culture will find her work both insightful and beautifully rendered, offering a unique voice that bridges tradition and contemporary themes.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"rhizodont-by-katrina-porteous-9781780377131","title":"Rhizodont","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eWinner of The Laurel Prize 2025\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eShortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize 2024\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAgainst a backdrop of vast geological time and recent fossil-fuel burning history, the poems of Katrina Porteous's latest collection address current issues of social and environmental change.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e330 million years ago, what is now the rocky shore close to Katrina Porteous's Northumberland home in the north of England was a tropical swamp inhabited by three-metre long predatory fish with huge tusk-like teeth. They belonged to a family of lobe-finned fishes which evolved to move on land as well as swim, and which are the ancestors of all four-limbed vertebrates, including humans. The fossil fish found in Northumberland is called the 'rhizodont'.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003ePorteous's new collection begins with a lovingly-observed contemporary journey through these ancient landscapes, from the former coal-mining communities of the Durham coast, where the coal-bearing Carboniferous strata are overlain with younger rocks, to the Northumberland shores where the rhizodont's remains were found. Against a backdrop of vast geological time and recent fossil-fuel burning history, these poems address current issues of social and environmental change. They are followed by two sequences about aspects of the latest technological revolution—autonomous systems and AI, and the remote-sensing techniques used to explore the most inaccessible reaches of our planet, Antarctica, to measure Earth's changing climate.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe poems unfold from England's North-East coast into global questions of evolution, survival and extinction—in communities and languages, and throughout the natural world, where hope resides in Life's astonishing powers of reinvention.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eRhizodont\u003c\/em\u003e is Katrina Porteous's fourth poetry collection from Bloodaxe, and extends territory explored in her three previous books. It combines scientific themes from \u003cem\u003eEdge\u003c\/em\u003e (2019) with the ecological localism of \u003cem\u003eTwo Countries\u003c\/em\u003e (2014) and \u003cem\u003eThe Lost Music\u003c\/em\u003e (1996), both of which were concerned with the landscapes and communities of North-East England.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Unknown","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47464188575980,"sku":"9781780377131","price":37.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/9781780377131-rhizodont.jpg?v=1775041082"}],"url":"https:\/\/bookhero.co.nz\/collections\/katrina-porteous.oembed","provider":"Book Hero","version":"1.0","type":"link"}