Heirloom
Shortlisted for the Forward (Jerwood) Prize for Best First Collection 2025
A Poetry Book Society Commendation

'How the noise in my head grows and grows,
splinters into phantoms and shapes,

graceless muses for her cot-mobile.
How I terror.'

Moving from colonial to post-colonial St Lucia, this debut collection brings to light the inheritances of four generations of women, developing monologues, lyrics and narrative poems which enable us to see how past dysfunction, tyranny and terror structure the shapes of women's lives, and what they hand down to one another.

Uneasy inheritances are just the starting point for this debut's remarkable meditations: Should the stories of the past be told? Do they bring redemption or ruin? What are the costs of saying what happened? Beguiling and cathartic, Catherine-Esther Cowie's powerful, formally inventive poems reckon with the past even as they elegise and celebrate her subjects.

1147307275
Heirloom
Shortlisted for the Forward (Jerwood) Prize for Best First Collection 2025
A Poetry Book Society Commendation

'How the noise in my head grows and grows,
splinters into phantoms and shapes,

graceless muses for her cot-mobile.
How I terror.'

Moving from colonial to post-colonial St Lucia, this debut collection brings to light the inheritances of four generations of women, developing monologues, lyrics and narrative poems which enable us to see how past dysfunction, tyranny and terror structure the shapes of women's lives, and what they hand down to one another.

Uneasy inheritances are just the starting point for this debut's remarkable meditations: Should the stories of the past be told? Do they bring redemption or ruin? What are the costs of saying what happened? Beguiling and cathartic, Catherine-Esther Cowie's powerful, formally inventive poems reckon with the past even as they elegise and celebrate her subjects.

18.99 In Stock
Heirloom

Heirloom

by Catherine-Esther Cowie
Heirloom

Heirloom

by Catherine-Esther Cowie

Paperback

$18.99 
  • SHIP THIS ITEM
    In stock. Ships in 6-10 days.
  • PICK UP IN STORE

    Your local store may have stock of this item.

Related collections and offers


Overview

Shortlisted for the Forward (Jerwood) Prize for Best First Collection 2025
A Poetry Book Society Commendation

'How the noise in my head grows and grows,
splinters into phantoms and shapes,

graceless muses for her cot-mobile.
How I terror.'

Moving from colonial to post-colonial St Lucia, this debut collection brings to light the inheritances of four generations of women, developing monologues, lyrics and narrative poems which enable us to see how past dysfunction, tyranny and terror structure the shapes of women's lives, and what they hand down to one another.

Uneasy inheritances are just the starting point for this debut's remarkable meditations: Should the stories of the past be told? Do they bring redemption or ruin? What are the costs of saying what happened? Beguiling and cathartic, Catherine-Esther Cowie's powerful, formally inventive poems reckon with the past even as they elegise and celebrate her subjects.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781800174795
Publisher: Carcanet Press, Limited
Publication date: 06/26/2025
Pages: 96
Product dimensions: 5.25(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.30(d)

About the Author

Catherine-Esther Cowie was born in St Lucia to a Tobagonian father and a St Lucian mother. She migrated with her family to Canada and then to the USA. Her poems have been published in PN Review, Prairie Schooner, West Branch Journal, The Common, SWWIM, Rhino Poetry and others. She is a Callaloo Creative Writing Workshop fellow.

From the B&N Reads Blog

Customer Reviews