One Eye'd Leigh

Kilalea Katharine

"One Eye'd Leigh" is a book of portraits, experiments and objects made of words. They find their locations between Cape Town and London, between the dawn of the new millennium and the present day. Guided by a biographical thread, in her first collection Kate Kilalea borrows the techniques of a craftsman to transform material into new shapes: an artist's concentrated gaze at the very particular subject in her portrait poems; an embroiderer's delicate craft of stitching to create a paced poetry, meticulous in detail. Her language is familiar, her forms transparent. She leads readers through a landscape in which the lucid angles of a chair might express love more precisely than the lines of a sonnet. It is the ways in which these poems turn what is familiar into something strange and new, what is stable fluid, and how out of light darkness is seen to shine, that make these poems powerful, haunting and original.

About the Author

Originally from South Africa, Katharine Kilalea moved to London in 2005 to study for an MA in Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia. Her first book, "One Eye'd Leigh" was shortlisted for the Costa Poetry Award and longlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize for writers under 30. She has received an Arts Council Award for poetry and her poems have appeared in publications including the 2010 Forward Prize Anthology, PN Review and Magma and performed on BBC Radio 3, as well as at festivals including the Wordsworth Trust Poetry Festival, Bridlington Poetry Festival and Worlds Literature Festival. A poem on chairs was commissioned for Martino Gamper's design book, "100 Chairs in 100 days and its 100 Ways". She works as a publicist for an architecture practice.

Reviews

"A wonderful example of original writing. She develops forms, illustrates objects, creates portraits and experiments stylishly with noticeable passion. A delight to read" – Poetry Review

"[Kilalea] illuminates ordinary events with arresting imagery... The most striking feature of this writing is its sure-footedness, its effortlessness" – Ambit magazine

"It's noticeable that a debut volume like Katherine Kilalea's 'One Eye's Leigh' is [...] consistent throughout, and is vigorous with inventive ideas, colloquial voices and formal energy" – Ian Gregson, Stand Magazine

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