“This changes things”: Claire’s first collection, published by Bloodaxe
EDWIN MORGAN POETRY AWARD – SHORTLISTED
SALTIRE FIRST BOOK AWARD – SHORTLISTED
SEAMUS HEANEY CENTRE POETRY PRIZE – SHORTLISTED
MICHAEL MURPHY MEMORIAL AWARD – SHORTLISTED
BOOKS OF THE YEAR 2016 – THE BOTTLE IMP, THE HERALD
Claire Askew’s voice is arrestingly and distinctively her own, imbued with a sense of caring and inducing, in her more intimate moments, a scarcely bearable poignancy.
— STEWART CONN
Askew’s is a humane consciousness, with a genius for communicating how people tick… She writes with an agenda compellingly, harnessing flashes of imagist brilliance.
— JEN HADFIELD
This changes things contains some deeply moving ruminations on death and loss, a number of significant political lyrics, and a handful of truly reader-altering moments; it’s these pieces that stay longest in the memory, an uncommon achievement.
— DAVE COATES
Despite this being a collection built up over many years there is no obvious developmental trajectory, no poems that could be labelled early poems; these are hard hitters, bold and polished to a steely gleam.
— VICKI HUSBAND
The way Askew writes about people is very generous… it’s like she wants to make a hole in the invisible skin that keeps us all separate from each other and see what’s underneath, to look at those tiny unique details of a life that make us all the same.
— MAGDA KNIGHT
Claire Askew doesn’t mince words: she revels in them, pretty or dirty, and hammers them into strange and kenspeckle amulets, talismans against loss, death, isolation…. Looking into the future with ‘no innocence’, haunted by the past, the allusive, mysterious work at the core of this collection will take Claire Askew far.
— PIPPA LITTLE
This changes things is, admirably, a feminist collection – deeply concerned with women’s lives, in all their strength and vulnerability. But Askew has a capacious eye; in the slow-burning second half of the book… some strong poems documenting travel… suggest a poet whose next steps are attractively difficult to predict… Askew is the real thing, and everyone should buy this debut.
— MAGMA
an excellent debut from a promising new voice in Scottish poetry.
— TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT
The cover image is a custom painting by super talented brother, Nick Askew — also known as A Little Bit Askew! If you want to own a piece of his art, you can buy his greetings cards, and other things, at his Etsy store.
This book was not made by just me… I owe a huge debt of gratitude to the following folk:
Cover design and editing: Neil Astley / Bloodaxe
Additional help with editing: Sarah Ream
Blurb: Dave Coates
Author photo: Sally Jubb Photography
Funding: Scottish Book Trust, Creative Scotland‘s Open Project Fund, the Edwin Morgan Poetry Award
Moral support: Stephen Welsh, Alan Gillis, Robert Alan Jamieson