Rachel Bower – författare

A companion for life, this anthology is filled with unforgettable poems by, for and about parents. Poems about parents and parenthood have been written throughout history, exploring the relationships that remain eternally familiar yet endlessly unfathomable. Family Lines traces this rich tradition, presenting diverse perspectives on subjects including pregnancy and arrivals, loss and letting go, mothers and fathers, ageing and farewells. Simon Armitage and Rachel Bower's marvellous selection stretches from antiquity to the present day, bringing together adored classics and extraordinary contemporary poems. See how life is transformed following childbirth according to William Blake, Sylvia Plath and Liz Berry. Christina Rossetti, Philip Larkin, Mary Jean Chan and Selima Hill offer differing perspectives on mothers. There are powerful father-and-son encounters from Homer as well as Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Li-Young Lee and Roger Robinson. Tony Harrison, Anne Carson and Fawzia Muradali Kane are among those wishing farewells. Whether measured in 'sweet-wild weeks' or 'obstinate, exhausted mornings', through 'sharpest pangs' or 'each minuscule miracle' - this anthology illuminates what connects us across generations.

‘A gritty and captivating tale of resilience, violence and the power of female solidarity’ HARPER'S BAZAAR‘This unflinching debut builds relentlessly to a heart-stoppingly dramatic climax’ DAILY MAIL‘Haunting, lyrical and thoroughly gripping’ CLARE FISHER‘Thrilling, poetic, dark and alive – a shimmering gemstone of a debut’ ALICE ASHFrom the river it comes. To the river it always returns.Alex, Lauren and Nancy are three women each trapped in their own lives, swept along by forces beyond their control. Alex is isolated in her abusive marriage, and struggles to keep her growing family together; Lauren is doing what she can to provide for her two boys; and Nancy dreams of escaping the care home that her son abruptly moved her into.But there’s another character in this story. Beckoning, menacing, hiding within bushes and behind shadows. What unites these women? And can they break the cycles holding them back?

‘A gritty and captivating tale of resilience, violence and the power of female solidarity’ HARPER'S BAZAAR‘This unflinching debut builds relentlessly to a heart-stoppingly dramatic climax’ DAILY MAIL‘Haunting, lyrical and thoroughly gripping’ CLARE FISHER‘Thrilling, poetic, dark and alive – a shimmering gemstone of a debut’ ALICE ASHThe three women flinch: feel something pass outside. A reek of singed fur, scorching damp. Flaming eyes. A creature. It knows these women. They feel its wanting.From the river it comes.To the river it always returns.Alex is trying to hold her growing family together with a husband who is becoming more and more difficult to keep happy. Lauren hopes that the new man in her life might present a fresh start for her and her two boys. And Nancy’s son has moved her into a care home where she feels entirely out of place, longing for her lost dog while dreaming of her own escape.But there is something else at play here. Something lurking in the water or at the end of an unlit street; a shadow in a bag of strangers’ clothing; a chorus of voices calling in the distance.As each woman’s world spirals from her grasp, they feel it getting closer, revealing the truth of what binds them together, and what must be done to set each of them free . . .

‘A gritty and captivating tale of resilience, violence and the power of female solidarity’ HARPER'S BAZAAR‘This unflinching debut builds relentlessly to a heart-stoppingly dramatic climax’ DAILY MAIL‘Haunting, lyrical and thoroughly gripping’ CLARE FISHER‘Thrilling, poetic, dark and alive – a shimmering gemstone of a debut’ ALICE ASHThe three women flinch: feel something pass outside. A reek of singed fur, scorching damp. Flaming eyes. A creature. It knows these women. They feel its wanting.From the river it comes.To the river it always returns.Alex is trying to hold her growing family together with a husband who is becoming more and more difficult to keep happy. Lauren hopes that the new man in her life might present a fresh start for her and her two boys. And Nancy’s son has moved her into a care home where she feels entirely out of place, longing for her lost dog while dreaming of her own escape.But there is something else at play here. Something lurking in the water or at the end of an unlit street; a shadow in a bag of strangers’ clothing; a chorus of voices calling in the distance.As each woman’s world spirals from her grasp, they feel it getting closer, revealing the truth of what binds them together, and what must be done to set each of them free . . .

Bower seeks to recover the lived experiences of women who have often appeared only fleetingly in official histories. This poetry pushes towards a more expansive understanding of 'motherhood', inclusive of broader urgent issues about gender and our collective responsibilities for lives, environments and natural worlds.

This book examines the striking resurgence of the literary letter at the end of the long twentieth century. It explores how authors returned to epistolary conventions to create dialogue across national, linguistic and cultural borders and repositions a range of contemporary and postcolonial authors never considered together before, including Monica Ali, John Berger, Amitav Ghosh, Michael Ondaatje and Alice Walker. Through a series of situated readings, the book shows how the return to epistolarity is underpinned by ideals relating to dialogue and human connection. Several of the works use letters to present non-anglophone material to the anglophone reader. Others use letters to challenge policed borders: the prison, occupied territory, the nation state. Elsewhere, letters are used to connect correspondents in different cultural and linguistic contexts. Common to all of the works considered in this book is the appeal that they make to us, as readers, and the responsibility they place on us to respond to this address.By taking the epistle as its starting point and pursuing Auerbach’s speculative ideal of weltliteratur, this book turns away from the dominant trend of ‘distant reading’ in world literature, and shows that it is in the close situated analysis of form and composition that the concept of world literature emerges most clearly. This study seeks to re-think the ways in which we read world literature and shows how the literary letter, in old and new forms, speaks powerfully again in this period.