{"title":"Toby Fitch","description":"\u003cp\u003eToby Fitch’s works invite readers into a rich exploration of identity and expression within the realms of \u003cstrong\u003earts and culture\u003c\/strong\u003e. Through titles like \u003cem\u003eOr, an Autobiography\u003c\/em\u003e and \u003cem\u003eSydney Spleen\u003c\/em\u003e, Fitch crafts narratives that blend profound self-reflection with vivid cultural insights.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eFans of thoughtful, genre-defying literature will appreciate Fitch’s distinctive voice, which challenges conventions and celebrates the complexity of personal and artistic journeys. These books offer a compelling meditation on creativity, memory, and the nuances of human experience.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"or-an-autobiography-by-toby-fitch-9781764239707","title":"Or, an Autobiography","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eOr, an Autobiography\u003c\/em\u003e explores in poetry the fluidities of self, body, and imagination.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eOr, an Autobiography\u003c\/em\u003e delves into these themes with its central book-length poem, 'The Or Tree', an alternative version of the fictional poem 'The Oak Tree', originally written by Virginia Woolf's character Orlando (a fictional rendering of Vita Sackville-West). In Woolf's narrative, 'The Oak Tree' takes Orlando over 300 years to compose as they navigate multiple eras, burn their poetic oeuvre, engage in various affairs with poets, critics, and a queen, while transitioning gender from male to female.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e'The Or Tree' is an assemblage and erasure poem resurrected chronologically from the six chapters of a burnt copy of \u003cem\u003eOrlando: A Biography\u003c\/em\u003e. It pays homage to androgyny and the non-binary, reflecting the fluidity inherent within us all. 'Or' serves as an alter ego and character within the poem, adopting they\/them pronouns, as well as representing a conjunction and a ghost.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eComplementing 'The Or Tree' is an \"understorey\", a poetic essay that underscores and intertwines with the poem across each chapter. This essay provides a radical play on the confessional and citational, enhancing the text's exploration of identity and fluidity.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Penguin Random House NZ","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47340997148908,"sku":"9781764239707","price":30.0,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/9781764239707.jpg?v=1772179816"},{"product_id":"sydney-spleen-by-toby-fitch-9781925818758","title":"Sydney Spleen","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eSydney Spleen\u003c\/i\u003e takes Charles Baudelaire's concept of spleen as melancholy with no apparent cause, characterised by a disgust with everything and combines it with a contemporary sense of irony to articulate the causes of our doom and gloom: corporate rapacity, climate change, disaster capitalism, the plague, neo-colonialism, fake news, fascism, and how to raise kids in a world fast becoming obsolete.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe backdrop of this collection of poems is sparkling Sydney and its screens, through which the poet mainlines global angst. Fitch's 'spleen poems', with their radical use of form and tone, are as much an aesthetic experience as a literary one—translation becomes homage becomes satire becomes song; essays become lyrics become rants become dreams. What is a poem when 'no one believes in the future now anyway'?\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eNor is the collection lacking in humour. \u003ci\u003eSydney Spleen\u003c\/i\u003e mocks everything in its crystal glass, yet still finds real moments of connection to celebrate.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e'\u003cstrong\u003eFitch's poems are not interested in slowly unfolding a metaphor or arriving at a singular meaning. Instead, they ask you to cling on for your life.'\u003c\/strong\u003e \u003cstrong\u003e- Sarah Holland-Batt\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Hachette Aotearoa New Zealand","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47428163666156,"sku":"9781925818758","price":29.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/9781925818758.jpg?v=1774767080"}],"url":"https:\/\/bookhero.co.nz\/collections\/toby-fitch.oembed","provider":"Book Hero","version":"1.0","type":"link"}