Host

by Sarah Hymas

Sarah Hymas’s debut collection is, like its main theme, ground-breaking. It explores heritage: familial, social and environmental. Investigating notions of territory, these poems skein out our complex relationship with the natural world — how, guest, stranger or gardener, we’re pulled into its dynamic cycles. The two sections of Host flare with distinct tones. In Bedrock four generations of one family reveal their hopes and disappointments: glinting in the stones of Yorkshire, love, in all its universal peculiarities, sustains and agitates this extended narrative sequence. In Landfall the canvas expands beyond home, to encounter a dark riot of colour: a more playful, if elusive, world of travel, sailing, friendship and sexual awakenings. Throughout, these poems display a metaphorical brilliance, illuminating the sacred within the familiar. This book heralds the arrival of a passionately muscular voice, rooted in necessity and physical experience.

Paperback

First published January 1, 2010

About the author

Sarah Hymas is a poet and short story writer. Her work has appeared in anthologies, magazines, pamphlets and multimedia exhibits around the UK, including The British Council's New Writing 15, The Rialto, Orbis, Smiths Knoll and Magma. She is a Hawthornden Fellow.

Her first poetry collection, Host, was published by Waterloo Press, 2010 and a short story collection, Closet Collection, was published in 1995.

She was poet in residence for Calderdale Libraries between 2003-2005, where she worked with library staff, a photographer and painter to promote the benefits of reading. She was the founding editor of Flax, the publishing imprint of Lancaster's literature festival, which publishes and promotes writing from the North West of England.