Wow

Bill Manhire's Wow is a poetry book that explores the future of other extinctions, combining comedy, satire, and the Jeremiad with the delicacy of minute detail and the rhythms of nature's comfort and hope. Teju Cole declared him to be world-class, and he is New Zealand's first poet laureate.

\n Format: Paperback / softback
\n Length: 88 pages
\n Publication date: 29 October 2020
\n Publisher: Carcanet Press Ltd
\n

Bill Manhire's Wow, a poetry book society winter 2020 recommendation, opens with the voice of an extinct bird, a song from ancient times, and takes us forward into the present and the darkening future of other extinctions. For Manhire, the reach of the lyric is long, encompassing the penetration of comedy, satire, the Jeremiad, but also the delicacy of minute detail and the rhythms of nature's comfort and hope, the promise of renewal. In the title poem, the baby exclaims "Wow," and the wonder is genuine at both the world and language. However, the world will have the last word.

Writing about Bill Manhire, Teju Cole declared, "Being the leading poet in New Zealand is like being the best DJ in Estonia, impressive enough on its own terms. But Bill Manhire is more than that: he is unquestionably world-class. As with Seamus Heaney, you get a sense of someone with a steady hand on the tiller, and both the will and the craft to take your breath away." Bill Manhire was New Zealand's first poet laureate. He established and until recently directed the International Institute of Modern Letters at Victoria University of Wellington. This is the ninth of his Carcanet books in 30 years. They include a Selected and a Collected Poems.

\n Weight: 122g\n
Dimension: 135 x 214 x 10 (mm)\n
ISBN-13: 9781800170049\n \n