Sasha Dugdale's fourth Carcanet collection, Joy, features the poem of that title which received the 2016 Forward Prize for Best Single Poem. 'Joy' is a monologue in the voice of William Blake's wife Catherine, exploring the creative partnership between the artist and his wife, and the nature of female creativity. The Forward judges called it 'an extraordinarily sustained visionary piece of writing'.
The poems in Joy mark a new departure for Dugdale, who expresses in poetry a hitherto 'silent' dialogue which she began as an editor of Modern Poetry in Translation with writers such as Don Mee Choi, Kim Hyesoon, Maria Stepanova and Svetlana Alexeivich. Dugdale combines an open interest in the historical fate of women and in the treacherous fictional shaping of history. In the abundant, complex and not always easy range of voices in Joy she attempts to redress the linear nature of remembrance and history and restore the 'maligned and misaligned'.
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[A dark stage. A woman in a rocking chair. Cathrine Blake - JOY] ***(Carcanet Poetry, 30 November 2017, ebook, 64 pages, borrowed from the National Poetry Library)
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Joy is an impressive collection of poetry, not least the title poem. The collection opens with the long narrative poem Joy which is, hands down one of the best poems I've read in a long time. I was blown away by it. I loved every word, every image. The rest of the poems in the collection were fantastic as well, a sheer pleasure to read. I really loved Valentine's, Villanelle, Ironing the Spider, Days and The Daughter of a Widow. It's been ages since I read poems this good.
