C+nto & Othered Poems
A poetry collection about butch counterculture, queer bodies, memory, and resistance.
Work Information
Poems tracing the history of bodies and resistance.
A poetry collection about butch counterculture, queer bodies, memory, and resistance.
Book Information
- Publisher
- Westbourne Press
- Published
- 2021-10-30
- Pages
- 125 pages
- Language
- 英語
- Size
- 12.7 x 1.02 x 19.69 cm
- ISBN-13
- 9781908906489
- ISBN-10
- 1908906480
- Price
- 2928 JPY
- Category
- 洋書/Politics & Social Sciences/Social Sciences/Specific Demographics/Gay & Lesbian
WINNER OF THE T. S. ELIOT PRIZE 2021 The female body is a political space. C+nto enters the private lives of women from the butch counterculture, telling the inside story of the protests they led in the ‘90s to reclaim their bodies as their own – their difficult balance between survival and self-expression. History, magic, rebellion, party and sermon vibrate through Joelle Taylor’s cantos to uncover these underground communities forged by women. Part-memoir and part-conjecture, Taylor explores sexuality and gender in poetry that is lyrical, expansive, imagistic, epic and intimate. C+nto is a love poem, a riot, a late night, and an honouring.
Joelle Taylor is an award-winning poet, playwright and author. A former UK slam champion, she founded SLAMbassadors, the UK’s youth slam championships, in 2001 and was its Artistic Director and National Coach until 2018. Taylor is a fellow of the RSA and the host and co-curator of Out-Spoken, the UK’s premier poetry and music club, currently resident at the Southbank Centre. Taylor is widely anthologised, and is the author of three poetry collections, three plays and a collection of short stories, The Night Alphabet (forthcoming). Taylor has appeared on several television and radio programmes, including the One Show, Vanessa Feltz Show and Women’s Hour, and her documentary about being a masculine lesbian, Butch , was recently featured on BBC Radio 4.
Reviews
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Better on stage?
I’m sure these poems would benefit from being seen performed live. As page poems, I found them a bit limp.
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Wow. Just wow. Read this.
If you are or love queer people, and especially if you are or love butches, "masculine of center" women and/or gender-non-conforming women, read this. It is visceral, heartbreaking, illuminating and stunning. And it follows the dictum of poet Bruce Weigl in his ars poetica "The Impossible" -- "Say it clearly and you make it beautiful, no matter what." I am so happy that Joelle Taylor won this prize, for so many reasons, because she deserves it, and it brought her a wider audience - including me!
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Excellent
What an excellent book! Highly recommend….
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Just brilliant
Maybe the last time I bought a poetry book was Faber's special edition of Sylvia Plath's Ariel. I usually prefer to read biographies or fiction. But after hearing the news about this book winning the TS Eliot award and listening to Joelle reading on BBC Radio I had to get it. Wow, what a book! It's spare but packed with as much story, emotion and ideas in and between the lines as any memoir or novel of 300 pages. And what a beautiful edition, like holding gold in your hands. Highly recommended.
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This is a very moving collection.
Exploring queer history, safe spaces, butch identity grief and loss, what it is to live in a state where being queer is illegal. Physical and sexual violence. As you can tell from my description this is not an easy read but, if and when you are up for it, Joelle will repay you in spades.
Related Literary Awards
- T. S. Eliot Prize Edition 29 (2021) ・Winner