Swimming Between Islands

Charlotte Eichler's debut collection, Swimming Between Islands, is a shortlisted nominee for the 2024 Seamus Heaney First Collection Poetry Prize. The poems explore the complexities of human connection, navigating misunderstandings, family silences, and unwanted legacies. With a plural perspective and a focus on the natural world, the collection takes the reader on a journey to remote and isolated places, including Scotland, Scandinavia, Russia, and Alaska.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 72 pages
Publication date: 23 February 2023
Publisher: Carcanet Press Ltd

Charlotte Eichler's debut collection, Swimming Between Islands, showcases a unique blend of weathers, atmospheres, and fauna. From egg collectors and moth trappers to hermits and cuttlefish, the islanded world serves as the backdrop for poems that explore the complexities of human connection, despite misunderstandings, family silences, and unwanted legacies.

Eichler's poems are captivating and demand slow reading to fully appreciate their astonishment. Laura Scott, in her response to Eichler's work in New Poetries VIII, praised the poet's ability to create astonishing poems that resonate with the reader. Anthony Vahni Capildeo characterized her first pamphlet as modern pastoral, transcending the ordinary domestic lyric and venturing into more profound realms.

Swimming Between Islands is a substantial collection that gathers Eichler's earlier work with a fresh batch of new poems. In these poems, the first-person singular takes on a relational and social tone, refusing to separate consciousness cleanly. The perspective is often plural, oscillating between the perspectives of a couple contemplating marriage and childhood friends divining the future from ladybirds and four-leafed clovers. The reader is invited to immerse themselves in the poem's center, experiencing the raw emotions and sensory details. As the book progresses, it leads the reader to increasingly wild and isolated places, such as Scotland, Scandinavia, Russia, and Alaska, where the gannets soar under a fishbone sky, creating a striking visual imagery.

Eichler's poetry explores the complexities of human connection, the search for meaning, and the challenges of navigating the world. Her use of language is precise and evocative, drawing the reader into the sensory experience of the natural world. Swimming Between Islands is a testament to Eichler's talent as a poet and her ability to create vivid and memorable images that linger in the mind long after the last page is turned.

Weight: 104g
Dimension: 215 x 135 x 7 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781800171374