The Hat-Stand Union

Overview

Extending the vigorous world she created in her previous collections, Caroline Bird’s The Hat-Stand Union is a book about isolated people. Some are isolated within a couple, some in a crowd, some have actively chosen to retreat, and others are frantically trying to join forces with something, anything: a lover, a religion, a country, a cause. The poems contain more shadows now, more tones of voice, a fuller anger, and a broader love of life and language. Her imagination is inventive and bizarre; she teaches how extraordinary, dangerous, joyful, and full of surprise everyday life can be.

Reviews

“What an original, captivating, and spellbinding voice. Bird is fearless. She’s dangerous and witty too with a rare quality of imagination.â€Â  —Lemn Sissay, poet and author, Listener

“Her poems burst with linguistic energy.â€Â  —Times Literary Supplement

Author Biography

Caroline Bird is an award-winning poet and the author of the collections Looking Through Letterboxes, Trouble Came to the Turnip, and Watering Can. She is the recipient of the Eric Gregory Award and was short-listed for the Geoffrey Dearmer Prize and twice for the Dylan Thomas Prize. She was one of the five official poets at London Olympics 2012 and her poem, “The Fun Palace†is erected on the Olympic Site outside the main stadium.