Quiver

by Deryn Rees-Jones

Intended to be read from beginning to end, Quiver is a book-length poem - a murder-mystery - which explores the nature of creativity. Fay Thomas, a poet with writer's block, becomes a murder suspect after she stumbles over the body of her husband's former lover, Mara, as she runs one morning in a local cemetery. Set in a year when Valentine's Day and Ash Wednesday coincide with Chinese New Year celebrations for the Year of the Horse, Fay slowly begins to find her own voice as her poems become interspersed with the narrative. With the help of her friend Erica, trailed by a bewildered policeman and haunted by a ghostly figure, she tracks the killer through the docklands of Liverpool, before the final dramatic showdown in Chinatown. "Deryn Rees-Jones proves herself to be a fascinating and compelling poet.. There are two main strengths to this poetry, which endlessly repays attention by providing fresh nuances of the ability of Deryn Rees-Jones to manage a wide emotional range, and her fluidity of meaning."
Critical Quarterly "Rees-Jones is a joy to read because she stands for life"
Orbis Deryn Rees-Jones was educated at the University of Wales, Bangor, and Birkbeck College, London. She is an Eric Gregory Award winner, and The Memory Tray was shortlisted for a Forward Poetry Prize for Best First Collection. In 1996 she received an Arts Council of England Writer's Award. She lives in Liverpool, where she lectures at the University of Liverpool.

Genres: Poetry

100 pages, Hardcover

First published April 1, 2004

About the author

Rees-Jones is an Anglo-Welsh poet and professor of poetry at the University of Liverpool. She has a PhD from Birkbeck where she studied women poets. She has published four volumes of poetry. 'Burying the Wren' was a TLS Book of the Year and a Poetry Book Society Recommendation.

Reviews

[Charlotte · Rating 4 out of 5]

A brilliant little poetry book. (Primarily about a relationship with a guy named Will.)