Smith/Doorstop Books Livres

Winner of the 2019 New Poets Prize, ‘Katabasis’ means a descent, the sinking of the winds or sun, a military retreat, a trip down into the underworld. This mythopoetic and experimental sequence of poems, texts and translations links the ancient Sumerian epic The Descent of Inanna to contemporary neo-colonial violences as a consequence of military occupation.

Threadbare is about witnessing and experiencing sexual violence against women from a young age, and how, despite unravelling, we manage, time and time again, to stitch ourselves back together. This pamphlet is a crucial contribution to the ongoing conversation about sexual violence and the nature of victimhood brought into the limelight by the #MeToo movement. The collection is broken into two parts - each beautifully demarcated with hand-drawn illustrations from the author. Part I sees the speaker witness sexual violence against women from a young age, and constitutes an extended