Overview

*SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2026 DYLAN THOMAS PRIZE* 'Breath-taking . . . Evans brings forensic observation and brave grace to turbulent waters and the infinitesimal rituals of care' NANCY CAMPBELL 'Evans hears the world around her like no one else; she paces from beauty to agony and back without missing a step' NOREEN MASUD 'Balances a hypnotically dreamy and filmic vision with a precise and unsentimental lyric voice' POLLY ATKIN ------------------------------------------------------------------------ From the multi-award-winning poet: a new collection of soaring lyricism and desire, exploring the act of care and the consequences of loving Under the Blue is an arresting, deeply candid exploration of both the shimmering beauty of life and the realities of care. Through a series of glittering fragmental prose poems and evocative postcards, Suzannah V. Evans has produced a kaleidoscopic meditation grounded by profound humanity and empathy – about intimacy and togetherness, sickness and pain, what can be said and what remains unsayable. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 'Catches us in the complexity of pleasure and pain that is being bodies in this world' PHOEBE POWER 'Understated, true and wise ... A poetic waterlog buoyed by the rhythms of love' ISABEL GALLEYMORE

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9781526677723

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Reviews

Under the Blue ventures into new poetic waters to document the lived experience of being a carer. On every page we find a voice that’s understated, true and wise. The result is a poetic waterlog buoyed by the rhythms of love -- ISABEL GALLEYMORE, author of Significant Other

A marvellous, wrenching collection. Evans hears the world around her like no one else; she paces from beauty to agony and back without missing a step -- NOREEN MASUD, author of A Flat Place Under the Blue ventures into new poetic waters to document the lived experience of being a carer. On every page we find a voice that’s understated, true and wise. The result is a poetic waterlog buoyed by the rhythms of love -- ISABEL GALLEYMORE, author of Significant Other

A marvellous, wrenching collection. Evans hears the world around her like no one else; she paces from beauty to agony and back without missing a step -- NOREEN MASUD, author of A Flat Place Under the Blue ventures into new poetic waters to document the lived experience of being a carer. On every page we find a voice that’s understated, true and wise. The result is a poetic waterlog buoyed by the rhythms of love -- ISABEL GALLEYMORE, author of Significant Other Brimming with sheer gladness for the gift of being alive, and catching us in the complexity of pleasure and pain that is being bodies in this world. Written with a luminous energy that will keep you turning the pages, these poems are a precious reminder to be thankful for the small details, and to love one another with all gentleness, commitment and care -- PHOEBE POWER, author of Shrines of Upper Austria

Under the Blue is a breath-taking book. Each page displays the panache of a writer in their element. Suzannah V. Evans brings forensic observation and brave grace to turbulent waters and the infinitesimal rituals of care, and crafts a fierce credo of risk, rescue and radical tenderness -- NANCY CAMPBELL, author of Fifty Words for Snow A marvellous, wrenching collection. Evans hears the world around her like no one else; she paces from beauty to agony and back without missing a step -- NOREEN MASUD, author of A Flat Place An extraordinary and important debut collection, powerfully assured both in its craft and in its purpose, illuminating the dailyness of care for loved ones in a careless world. The mundane and marvellous collide in the daily triumphs, terrors, joys and rage of the communal acts of unpaid care, and the particular doubleness of being a carer with experience of illness, the dual citizenship of the kingdoms of the sick and the temporarily well. Balancing a hypnotically dreamy and filmic vision with a precise and unsentimental lyric voice, this collection gave me the best kind of chills -- POLLY ATKIN, author of The Company of Owls In electrifying poetic prose, Under the Blue deftly moves through exotic, domestic and pastoral environments – rockpools, cowfields, a home in Christmastime – that feel imbued with breath. Wind, water and illness flows through these poems -- JOSHUA JONES, Dylan Thomas Prize and Polari Prize-shortlisted author of Local Fires Under the Blue ventures into new poetic waters to document the lived experience of being a carer. On every page we find a voice that’s understated, true and wise. The result is a poetic waterlog buoyed by the rhythms of love -- ISABEL GALLEYMORE, author of Significant Other Brimming with sheer gladness for the gift of being alive, and catching us in the complexity of pleasure and pain that is being bodies in this world. Written with a luminous energy that will keep you turning the pages, these poems are a precious reminder to be thankful for the small details, and to love one another with all gentleness, commitment and care -- PHOEBE POWER, author of Shrines of Upper Austria

Author Information

Suzannah V. Evans is a poet, researcher and educator. She is the author of Brightwork and Marine Objects / Some Language, and the editor of All Keyboards are Legitimate: Versions of Jules Laforgue. Her poetry has been awarded the Ivan Juritz Prize for Creative Experiment and a Northern Writers’ Award, performed at international festivals and broadcast on BBC Radio. She lives in Bristol, where she teaches literature and creative writing. Under the Blue is her debut collection.

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