Shortlisted for the Costa Poetry Award 2008.

Costa Book Awards 2008 Judges' comment: "Honest, observant poems from a collection which is both wonderfully unsettling and deeply life-affirming."

Win a luxury craft weekend break on Dartmoor

Dartmoor.co.uk has teamed up with Lovereading to offer one lucky winner the chance to win a prize package of accommodation for 2 at Lurcombe luxury apartments during the Contemporary Craft Festival in Bovey Tracey on June 7–9th, including day tickets to attend the festival itself plus Dinner for two (including a bottle of wine) in one of our leading gastro pubs the Rock Inn and a delicious lunch for two at Home Farm Café set in the scenic grounds of the National Trust Estate at Parke in Bovey Tracey.

Please note that this draw is open only for UK residents and is free to enter. Draw closes on 27 May 2013. The winner will be chosen randomly from all entrants.The winners will be notified by 1 June 2013. The decision of the judges is final. By providing us with your contact details when you enter the competition you are agreeing to future contact from Dartmoor.co.uk and it's selected partners.

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Synopsis

At the heart of many of these poems lies an apprehension of things being lost or destroyed, and with this a need for consolation. The question of how we look for, or create, such solace - whether in faith or the rain, by doing a puzzle or watching TV - is one that threads through the book. In this work - her second collection - there is an increasing scope and depth to language as Stoddart seeks to explore paradoxes: poems of motherhood are double-edged celebrations, grief must come to some good.

The ambivalence at work in her first book comes to intriguing fruition here in a collection of original and distinctive poems.

Reviews

About the Author

Born in 1966, Greta Stoddart grew up in Oxford and studied in Paris and London. Her first book, At Home in the Dark, won the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize in 2002. She lives in Devon and works as a poetry tutor for, among others, The Poetry School and Bath Spa University. More books by this author Author 'Like for Like' recommendation