Reviews
For Fagan, writing is a visceral activity, a reconnection with the physical rather than a flight away from it. These are earthy, elemental poems... [a] powerful collection
Herald
A new Jenni Fagan publication is my cue to log off, disconnect the landline, ignore the doorbell and let words transport me to a place of necessary beauty and kinder wildness ... She is, truly, one of the very best writers we have, in these mad islands
Niall Griffiths
About the Book
There's a Witch in the Word Machine, is a collection that underpins Jenni Fagan’s entire approach to words. Her spell poems are portraits of people, lovers and cities: Paris, New York, Edinburgh, Detroit, LA, and San Francisco. The excerpts of her Truth poem are a political response to great uncertainty in the world right now.
This collection is an exploration of words as spells, incantations, curse and solace.
The Author
Jenni Fagan
Dr Jenni Fagan is an award-winning poet, novelist and screenwriter. After the publication of her debut novel, The Panopticon, Jenni was selected as one of Granta’s Best Young British Novelists. She has been on lists including the Desmond Elliott Prize, James Tait Black, Sunday Times Short Story Prize and the BBC International Story Prize. The Sunlight Pilgrims saw her win Scottish Author of the Year at the Herald Culture Awards. Her third novel Luckenbooth was praised in The New York Times Book Review, who named her The Patron Saint of Literary Street Urchins. In 2022, Polygon published her novel, Hex, and The Bone Library, a poetry collection written during her time as a Writer in Residence at the Dick Vet Bone Library. Her memoir Ootlin published in 2024, alongside her seventh poetry collection A Swan's Neck on the Butcher's Block. Fagan recently wrote two hundred poems for a collectors book called Heart of the Spirit, celebrating 200 years of The Macallan whisky.
You may also like…
-
E-Book | Pub: 19 May 2016£4.99The Dead Queen of Bohemia is a journey through a life lived on the edge. With a poetic style influenced by Gertrude Stein and William Burroughs, this collection is woven with surrealistic imagery that is both unflinching and...
-
Paperback | Pub: 05 Sep 2024£10.99
A scintillating collection from one of Scotland’s most original voices. Jenni Fagan converses with the poets of the past; through them, she communes with demons and explores a world that is continually at odds with itself. The poet voyages, as...
