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The Conversation

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
The Conversation by Stephanie Norgate is a collection of visual and imaginative poems exploring the ties between nature and urban life, the past and present, and character and writer. The poems celebrate friendship during grief, closeness amid isolation, and the yearning to bridge gaps. Everyday miracles and landscapes evoke emotion and memory, while scenes from life ignite reflections on place, time, and mortality’s tender paradoxes.
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Format: Paperback / softback
$3499
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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?

Ideal for readers who appreciate thoughtful, lyrical poetry that explores complex themes such as memory, place, and human connection through vivid imagery and reflective tone. Suitable for those drawn to contemporary poetry with emotional depth and cultural resonance.

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In The Conversation, Stephanie Norgate explores relationships between nature and the city, past and present, character and writer. Shaped through speech and storytelling, these visual, sensuous and imaginative poems celebrate friendship, even in grief, closeness in times of isolation and lockdown, and the longing to bridge gaps and find cures.

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

In The Conversation, Stephanie Norgate explores relationships between nature and the city, the past and present, and character and writer. Shaped through both speech and storytelling, these visual, sensuous, and imaginative poems celebrate friendship, even in grief, closeness in times of isolation and lockdown, and the longing to bridge gaps and find cures.

Miracles are found in the everyday, in a child's sleep or a lit-up house. Textiles transform into remembrancers, landscape into emotion. A contemporary Daedalus views his life from a hang-glider. A scrap of handwriting, cafΓ© talk, an exploding car, an earthquake, the naming of fields, or a line of walkers ignite conversations about place, time, and the tender paradoxes of mortality.

Stephanie Norgate's first collection, Hidden River (2008), was shortlisted for both the Forward Prize for Best First Collection and the Jerwood Aldeburgh First Collection Prize and was followed by The Blue Den (2012). The Conversation is her third collection.

Her poetry has been praised for the 'depth of its lyricism' (Jackie Wills, Warwick Review), and for being 'energetic and generous, and displaying a 'feeling for place, for the roots of things' and for being 'searching, memorable, and disconcerting ... She has the ear for the music of a line and the shape and strength of an image.' (R.V. Bailey, Artemis).

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?

Stephanie Norgate’s poetry is noted for its lyricism, careful observation, and evocative imagery. Helen Dunmore praises the subtlety of thought and magnetic quality of her verses, drawing readers into captivating scenes. Critics admire her patient unveiling of the world and the richness found in each rereading, highlighting the poems' depth and phenomenological insight.

Book Hero reading reviews

Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9781780375748

Publisher: Bloodaxe Books Ltd

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 16 September 2021

Country: United Kingdom

Imprint: Bloodaxe Books Ltd

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Width: 156.0mm

Height: 234.0mm

Weight: 250g

Pages: 80

About the Author

Stephanie Norgate is a poet and playwright. Her plays have been broadcast on BBC Radio 4. For many years, she ran the MA in Creative Writing at Chichester University and is now a Royal Literary Fund Fellow at the University of Southampton. She edited an international collection of essays, Poetry and Voice (CSP, 2012) and Winchester Poetry Festival's Chalk Poets Anthology (Sarsen Press, 2015). In 2016, she completed a study of poetry trails for South Downs National Park. As a translator, she has contributed to Modern Poetry in Translation and the MPT anthology, Centres of Cataclysm (Bloodaxe Books/MPT, 2016). Her chapter about the imagery of the house in her poetry appears in Architectural Space and the Imagination (Palgrave Macmillan, 2020). Her three collections of poetry with Bloodaxe are Hidden River (2008), which was shortlisted for both the Forward Prize for Best First Collection and the Jerwood Aldeburgh First Collection Prize, The Blue Den (2012) and The Conversation (due in 2021).

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