No Far Shore: Charting Unknown Waters

by Anne-Marie Fyfe

No Far Shore: Charting Unknown Waters sees poet Anne-Marie Fyfe, who grew up on the Antrim Coast, explore her own writerly passion for horizon-gazing, on an odyssey from her native Cushendall by way of water’s-edge locations such as Orkney, Felixstowe, Swansea and Cork to Martha’s Vineyard & north from Cape Cod to Nova Scotia’s remote Breton Cove.

Charting, in a travel/literary memoir that blends poetry and prose, research and recall, the maritime sensibilities of loved writers from Herman Melville and Emily Dickinson to Virginia Woolf and Elizabeth Bishop, Fyfe finds shore-dwellers divide into those who exult in setting out to sea, and those who long instead for headland & island remoteness, an obsession seemingly traceable to absences in childhood, which echo something of Fyfe’s own growing-up on the edge of the North Channel.

This is the story of a quest that took the author to known & unfamiliar coastal waters, via lighthouses, lost islands & small harbours, & back into the shifting tidelines of memory & the hidden inlets of her own family narrative.

Genres: Poetry, Nonfiction

132 pages, Paperback

Published November 11, 2019

About the author

Anne Marie Fyfe was born in Ireland and now lives in West London. A poet, Creative Writing tutor, arts organiser (of the well-known Troubadour club events in London), she was recently Chair of the Poetry Society. She has read throughout the world at festivals and events and on BBC radio and television.

Reviews

[Kit · Rating 1 out of 5]

Read for A240.

[Therese · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is another book I've read for my English Lit module. I wasn't sure what I'd make of it, but it has really spoken to me, having lived by the sea and spent quite a bit of time by the sea since moving to England. I'm grateful for that experience as I don't think this book would've impacted me nearly as much had I not had it. This book is an interesting visual collection of poems, stories, prose, songs, Morse code and more about the sea, travel, mothers and home. I'm glad to have had the opportunity to read it.

[Author_S · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was a part of my university set texts. Fyfe writes beautifully combining prose and poetry about her relationship with the shore. I did not complete the whole of this book as it didn’t grab me personally at the time in which I read it. Others on the course have praised Fyfe’s writing and enjoyed the hybrid mix of style and escapist imagery.

[Christy Hallberg · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lovely travel memoir poetry book by the talented Anne-Marie Fyfe. So enjoyed this! Made me miss Ireland, but also took me on a journey to lighthouses and seas and shores far and wide, Elizabeth Bishop in tow. Sublime writing. Highly recommend.

[Jen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some truely beautiful writing woven throughout but didn't like a lot of the poetry

[Rosie Carlile · Rating 3 out of 5]

Had Jonah Hauer-King singing in my head the whole time

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

Stunning collection of travel life writing.

[Anna · Rating 5 out of 5]

I cannot recommend this absolutely spellbinding book enough. Fyfe takes us on a journey across the seas, weaving together poetry, literary criticism, description, and autobiography in a piece that feels more like a breath being slowly inhaled an exhaled than a conventional piece of literature.