Cleave: New Writing by Women in Scotland edited by Sharon Blackie
(Two Ravens Press)
Cleave is an anthology of new writing by women who in some way ‘belong to’ Scotland. It contains poetry, fiction, essays, scripts and one conversation, along with a brief biography of every writer featured which focuses on “their relationship to Scotland, something about being a woman writer in contemporary Scotland.” The writing is by turns contemplative, challenging, moving, honest, and funny – like the writers themselves. The thing that becomes apparent as you dip into this book is that there is no clear definition of what it means to be a woman writer in contemporary Scotland – the range of language and experience is kaleidoscopic and all the more engaging for it.
There are books that you sit down and read all the way through, books that you lose days of your life to, that catch you up and carry you along on the rollercoaster of their plot or argument. These are books to bury under the duvet with and only come out when you need the company of other people again, to check your vocal chords are still working.
Cleave is not one of these books. It is equally compelling, but in a very different way. It feels like a conversation, with a huge range of voices taking part; it’s like being at a party and meeting twenty people at once, some of whom you know well, some you sort of recognise and some you have never met before. And they are all talking to you with different accents, and languages, and opinions. They are all, for different reasons, worth listening to. So the thing to do is to make a cup of tea and share it with one of your new friends at a time.
Recommended by Philippa Cochrane, Learning Manager
September 2008
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