Foxglovewise

SHORTLISTED FOR THE GRIFFIN POETRY PRIZE


The UK debut of a celebrated American poet whose work is as lyrical as it is radical.

Foxglovewise is complex but inviting, profound but wry. It is firmly contemporary while also being in lively conversation with deep histories: Where do stargazers go in a city of light? Mlinko takes us from a Scottish cemetery to a mangrove in Florida via a supercell storm in Texas. Along the way, her use of form and rhyme is as light as it is enlightening as she probes our all-too-human nature and pays careful attention to the quiet marvels to be found by looking carefully at right where we happen to be.

Mlinko is rarely less than dazzling thanks to the pleasure and rigor of her phrasing. . . layered, allusive, and intelligent poems. . . . There is a moving and unignorable sense of grief and loss beneath the surface, in an expertly managed balance with the luster of the vocabulary and music of these poems.Publishers Weekly (starred review)

Mlinko delivers again on the promise of a richly rewarding smorgasbord of sound, image, feeling, and thought. Diego Báez, Booklist

Image-rich [with] densely discursive textures [...] This is a big and imposing book, worldly wise but warmly open and giving. David Wheatley, Guardian, Best Recent Poetry