Fiona Wright is a writer, editor and critic. She is the author of two collections of essays, Small Acts of Disappearance and The World Was Whole, and two poetry collections, Knuckled and Domestic Interior.
I worked through this book over a few months - picking it up every few days to read a poem. The poems in this collection lean so beautifully into tiny detail, the mundane everyday, the remarkable unremarkable things that mostly go unseen. Wright's attention to detail gives such energy to the domestic and the interior; while reading that kind of attention expanded beyond the book and into life. Grateful for this collection for what it says, and its influence on my perspective.
There is a certain obsession in the observation of the mundane within this collection of poems. Through the very process of undergoing such a microscopic analysis, the often droll and monotonous aspects of the domestic, are by Wright’s pen, afforded new significance and symbolism. Some modern poetry unashamedly dons the cloak of political correctness- appropriating contemporary issues in the apparent scarcity of other creative material, but somehow not fully engaging. However, these poems possess a dryness and a refreshingly unpretentious candour which transforms their theme, and makes reading them more interesting. I would rate this 3.7 stars.
Fiona Wright's poetry is beautiful. Domestic Interior is in parts funny, ironic and sombre. My favourite poems are the type that can immerse you in a feeling and use words like water - submerge you in a moment. Fiona Wright does this.
I am new to Fiona Wright’s poetry so I didn’t know what to expect but this was a great collection. There were poems that were funny as well as deeply reflective poems, all exploring the everyday in all its mundane beauty.