To Abandon Wizardry

Matthew Caley's seventh collection, "To Abandon Wizardry," explores a world where it's difficult to distinguish between what's real and what's not, featuring a central poem set in a parallel world filled with revenants, disemboweled wizards, talking horses, and flying houses. The book forges its aesthetic out of the simulation, hyper-association, and over-stimulation of living in the 21st century.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 96 pages
Publication date: 16 November 2023
Publisher: Bloodaxe Books Ltd

In his seventh collection, "To Abandon Wizardry," Matthew Caley delves into a world where distinguishing between reality and illusion becomes increasingly challenging. The political and cultural landscape we inhabit appears surreal, leading us to seek a narrative that resonates with the familiar realm of Harry Potter. However, the truth we uncover is not as magical as we might expect. Our skies are revealed as CGI creations, our touchstones are AI-powered, and our screens are filled with wonders, while our streets succumb to decay. We grapple with concepts such as Deep Fake, QAnon, the distinction between fake news and official truth, and the notion of an elusive elsewhere we yearn to escape to, only to find it equally illusory.

Within this almost parallel world, "To Abandon Wizardry" unfolds a captivating central poem, where a character savors an alfresco Americano in Shadwell, London, while engaging in a dialogue with a mesh-protected sapling that absorbs the diverse conversations of the city. Alongside this, we encounter a spectrum of supernatural beings, including revenants, disemboweled wizards, talking horses, and flying houses. Caley skillfully weaves these elements into his artistic tapestry, forging an aesthetic that emerges from the simulation, hyper-association, and overstimulation of contemporary life. What's remarkable is that all of this is undeniably true.

Dimension: 234 x 156 x 8 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781780376752