Selima Hill - Böcker

The Sparkling Jewel of Naturism brings together three seemingly unrelated poem sequences by 'this brilliant lyricist of human darkness' (Fiona Sampson). The poems in each spark off unexpected connections and surprises, despite their contrasting concerns: jealousy in 'Doormat' (being the object of someone else's jealousy), little girls in 'Happiness Is Just a Waste of Time', and married women in 'Blowfly'. Like all of Selima Hill's work, all three sequences in The Sparkling Jewel of Naturism chart 'extreme experience with a dazzling excess' (Deryn Rees-Jones), with startling humour and surprising combinations of homely and outlandish.

Shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize, Jutland brings together two contrasting poem sequences by 'this brilliant lyricist of human darkness' (Fiona Sampson), Advice on Wearing Animal Prints, winner of the Michael Marks Poetry Award, and Sunday Afternoons at the Gravel-pits. Like all of Selima Hill's work, both sequences chart 'extreme experience with a dazzling excess' (Deryn Rees-Jones), with startling humour and surprising combinations of homely and outlandish. Jutland poses questions about forgiveness,'but the answers, / like Valentines, are never enough', as she writes in 'Wolverine': 'And can't he understand / I'm trying to love him but I don't know how? / And is it true forgiveness is forgiveness / only if the person first reprints? / That kindness isn't kindness but self-sacrifice?'

I May Be Stupid But I'm Not That Stupid brings together six contrasting but complementary poem sequences by ‘this brilliant lyricist of human darkness’ (Fiona Sampson) relating to family, fear, foreboding and felicity. Elective Mute is about autism and happiness; My Mother and Me on the Eve of the Chess Championships, about a mother who prefers lettuces to life; Fishtank (Poetry Book Society Pamphlet Choice), about a brother who is somebody else; Lambchop, about a creepy old man; The Boxer Klitschko, on finding refuge with swimming, dogs and a jovial uncle; and Helpless with Laughter, on what the parts of the body have to say about themselves. Like all of Selima Hill’s work, all six sequences in the book chart ‘extreme experience with a dazzling excess’ (Deryn Rees-Jones), with startling humour and surprising combinations of homely and outlandish..

The Magnitude of My Sublime Existence is the account of a young woman's stay in the psychiatric ward of a large hospital. The only time she feels safe is when swimming; the only place, the sea, preferably underwater. Selima Hill's 17th book of poetry - her 14th from Bloodaxe - takes her back to the territory of her third book, The Accumulation of Small Acts of Kindness (1983), but this revisiting is quite different in style and mood. Over thirty years later, 'this brilliant lyricist of human darkness' (Fiona Sampson) is more able to chart and illuminate 'extreme experience with a dazzling excess' (Deryn Rees-Jones), with startling humour and surprising combinations of homely and outlandish. Shortlisted for the Roehampton Poetry Prize.

Splash like Jesus brings together three contrasting but complementary, familial poem sequences by 'this brilliant lyricist of human darkness' (Fiona Sampson), Buttercup the Sloth, about mothers; Lobo-Lobo, about sisters; and Behold My Father on His Bicycle, about exactly that. Like all of Selima Hill's work, all three sequences chart 'extreme experience with a dazzling excess' (Deryn Rees-Jones), with startling humour and surprising combinations of homely and outlandish.

Men Who Feed Pigeons brings together seven contrasting but complementary poem sequences by ‘this brilliant lyricist of human darkness’ (Fiona Sampson) relating to men and different kinds of women’s relationships with men. The Anaesthetist is about men at work; The Beautiful Man with the Unpronounceable Name is about someone else’s husband; Billy relates to friendship between a man and a woman; Biro is about living next door to a mysterious uncle; The Man in the Quilted Dressing-gown portrays a very particular old man; Ornamental Lakes as Seen from Trains is about a woman and a man she’s afraid of; while Shoebill is another sequence about a woman and a man, but quite different from the others. Like all of Selima Hill’s work, all seven sequences in this book chart ‘extreme experience with a dazzling excess’ (Deryn Rees-Jones), with startling humour and surprising combinations of homely and outlandish. Shortlisted for the 2021 Forward Prize for Best Collection.

Hot on the heels of her previous collection Men Who Feed Pigeons, Selima Hill's Women in Comfortable Shoes is her 21st book of poetry, presenting eleven contrasting but well-fitting sequences of short poems relating to women:Fishface: A disobedient young girl is sent to a Catholic convent school to give her mother a break.My Friend Weasel: The 50s. A girls' boarding school where the girls are somehow managing to make new friends.Susan and Me: On friendship. Two close friends, one of whom, Susan, is heading for a nervous breakdown.Dolly: Dolly is a duck. The other 29 women are, in their various ways, human.My Mother with a Beetle in Her Hair: A daughter's passion for swimming – despite of her mother hating every minute.Fridge: Lorries, geese and fridges speak of death, grief and absence.My Spanish Swimsuit: A daughter fears her rabbit-trapping father..The Chauffeur: A pair of bad-tempered sisters, a parrot and a cat.Girls without Hamsters: An older woman's obsession with a spider-legged young man.Reduced to a Quivering Jelly: Vera is old, and getting older, but she doesn't seem to care.Dressed and Sobbing: A woman is surprised to find herself getting older and lazier.The book is a Poetry Book Society Recommendation.

Selima Hill’s twenty-second collection A Man, a Woman & a Hippopotamus presents ten sequences of short poems, prose poems and short pieces on relationships and doings between people, animals and the world at large:Self-portrait with a Bucket: On being an artist’s model.The Mathematician: A man and woman trying to agree.A Man, a Woman & a Chihuahua: Different people’s senses of bafflement with each other.Baby Peter: A homeless man and his mother.Agatha: An afternoon in a care home.Room 17: A 70-year-old woman, baffled but determined.Men in Shorts and Bonkers: Out walking with dogs and their humans.Until the Tears Roll Down My Cheeks like Honey: Two strangers in a field.The Surly Mothers of Successful Men: Short pieces of memoir.

Selima Hill's poetry has been called wanton, wildly imaginative, tender, intelligent, dangerous, defiant, subversive and startling. All these qualities are strongly present throughout "Gloria", a comprehensive selection drawn from ten formally diverse and thematically unified collections, each offering wild variations on her abiding themes: women's identities, love and loss, repression and abuse, family conflict and mental illness, men, animals and human civilisation. "Gloria" covers all Selima Hill's books from "Saying Hello at the Station" (1984) to "Red Roses" (2006), and was published at the same time as a separate, new collection, "The Hat" (2008).

Selima Hill's "The Hat" is a disturbing portrayal of a woman's struggle to regain her identity. Her story emerges through a series of short poems, often related to animals: how she is preyed upon and betrayed, misunderstood, compromised and not allowed to be herself. Like all of Selima Hill's books, "The Hat" charts extreme experience with a dazzling excess', with dark humour and surprising combinations of homely and outlandish. "The Hat" was published at the same time Selima Hill's "Gloria: Selected Poems", which draws on ten previous collections.

"Fruitcake" brings together four poem sequences about motherhood by 'this brilliant lyricist of human darkness' (Fiona Sampson). "Bougainvillae" explores love and having a mother. "Nylon" is about happiness, and not having or being a mother. Then "Bunker Sacks" brings grace but also the shock of being a young mother. Finally, "Grunter" shows the impact of Asperger's syndrome on both mother and child. Like all of Selima Hill's books, "Fruitcake" charts 'extreme experience with a dazzling excess' (Deryn Rees-Jones), with startling humour and surprising combinations of homely and outlandish.

"People Who Like Meatballs" brings together two contrasting poem sequences about rejection by 'this brilliant lyricist of human darkness' (Fiona Sampson). The title-sequence, "People Who Like Meatballs", is about a man's humiliation by a woman. Into my mother's snow-encrusted lap is about a dysfunctional mother-child relationship. Like all of Selima Hill's books, both sequences in "People Who Like Meatballs" chart 'extreme experience with a dazzling excess' (Deryn Rees-Jones), with startling humour and surprising combinations of homely and outlandish.