Margins
Violet book cover
Violet
1997
First Published
4.14
Average Rating
300
Number of Pages
Shortlisted for the Forward Prize, the T.S. Eliot Prize and the Whitbread Poetry AwardViolet is now included in Selima Hill's Selected Poems (Bloodaxe Books, 2008) which covers all Selima Hill's books from Saying Hello at the Station (1984) to Red Roses (2006).Violet is full of double startlingly wild, often bizarre poems on sisters and husbands, sex, ducks and fridges. If Selima Hill seems to show as strange a portrait of family life as anything by Buuel or Almodovar, that is because her mirror reects more than just surfaces. Hers is a looking-glass world seen through a fairground mirror, which exaggerates and accuses as well as telling a few home truths. Both distorting and revealing, Violet explodes lies and tells them too; exposes myths and creates them. In the end, nothing is certain, except that there are giant cows paddling in the stream, sloths singing in the trees, ants herding ferocious sheep, and ailing sh in the sh hospital. When the mirror cracks, with pain or laughter, the book splits into two halves. 'My Sister's Sister' is the story of two sisters, from the early days of their childhood to their nal estrangement after the death of their mother. 'My Husband's Wife' is a woman whose love for her husband survives the painful breakdown of their marriage.Violet was a Poetry Book Society Choice and was shortlisted for all three of the UKs major poetry prizes, the Forward Prize, T.S. Eliot Prize and Whitbread Poetry Award.
Avg Rating
4.14
Number of Ratings
35
5 STARS
37%
4 STARS
46%
3 STARS
11%
2 STARS
6%
1 STARS
0%
goodreads

Author

Selima Hill
Selima Hill
Author · 14 books

Selima Hill (born 13 October 1945 in Hampstead) is a British poet. Selima Hill grew up in rural England and Wales. She read Moral Sciences at New Hall, Cambridge University (1965-7). She regularly collaborates with artists and has worked on multimedia projects with the Royal Ballet, Welsh National Opera and BBC Bristol. She is a tutor at the Poetry School in London, and has taught creative writing in hospitals and prisons. Selima Hill won first prize in the 1988 Arvon Foundation/Observer International Poetry Competition for her long poem The Accumulation of Small Acts of Kindness, and her 1997 collection, Violet, was shortlisted for the Forward Poetry Prize (Best Poetry Collection of the Year), the T. S. Eliot Prize and the Whitbread Poetry Award. Her book of poetry, Bunny (2001), a series of poems about a young girl growing up in the 1950s, won the Whitbread Poetry Award. A selected poems: Gloria, was published in 2008. She was a Fellow at University of Exeter. Selima Hill lives in Lyme Regis. Her most recent book of poetry is People Who Like Meatballs (2012), shortlisted for the Forward Poetry Prize (Best Poetry Collection of the Year). (from Wikipedia)

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