Overview

A Telegraph Poetry Book of the Month (January 2020). Among Mina Gorji's poems in New Poetries V (2011) was one about Houdini entitled 'The Art of Escape' which returns here as the title poem. This colourful and vivid first collection continues the course of Mina Gorji's meticulous explorations of 'the strange and sometimes darker side of nature' and the different forms and meanings of escape: dandelions crossing the ocean, the journey of a gall wasp from Aleppo to England, the transformation of an armadillo into music. These poems shift by degrees until new patterns and sounds emerge, transforming the familiar into unexpected configurations. Art of Escape is a wonderful casting off into the complex waters of adult life, in which change has become the constant.

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9781784108823

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Reviews

'Here are poems of unsparing clarity, unflinching, each one an acute canticle of remembrance... Art of Escape marks the beginning of a splendid new voice in British poetry.' - Ishion Hutchinson; 'Mina Gorji's poems take small, careful steps over a treacherous terrain, securing their meanings with steady intent. Deceptively straightforward statement mingles with natural lore and observation to create complex, delicate structures.' - Jamie McKendrick; 'With these luminous, tender, yet tough poems, Mina Gorji is building a place of safety - for herself, her family, her readers, and all those who are wandering and uprooted.' - Marina Warner; 'Her poems resemble the curious animals they seek to represent - enigmatic, sometimes armour-plated, inviting yet also protective of their inner mysteries.' - Jahan Ramazani

'Mina Gorji's poems take small, careful steps over a treacherous terrain, securing their meanings with steady intent. 'When danger looms / it imitates the reeds' she says of the bittern. Deceptively straightforward statement mingles with natural lore and observation to create complex, delicate structures. Her creatures are too autonomous to be parables and yet they share a threatened exilic space with human culture. Protective coloration, ink, quill, spine and 'armament of shell': the poems themselves assume the curious shapes necessary for their survival.' - Jamie McKendrick

Author Information

Mina Gorji was born in Tehran and grew up in London. She lives in Cambridge where she is a lecturer in the English Faculty, Cambridge and a fellow of Pembroke College. Her published work includes a study of John Clare and essays on awkwardness, mess, weeds and rudeness. Her poems have appeared, among other places, in Magma, PN Review, London Magazine, The International Literary Quarterly and New Poetries V.

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