spilling histories by clare e. potter
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The first poetry collection from South Wales poet, clare e. potter, who lived and taught in New Orleans for many years and has won both the John Tripp award for spoken poetry and a Focus on the Future of Arts award. In evocative, deceptively simple word pictures clare conjures sensuous reflections. An assured first collection.
Praise for Spilling Histories
It’s the unuttered in Potter’s poetry that whispers in your bones. …as if she holds each sensation in her hands and turns it round and round until it begins to breathe.
Jan Villarrubia
Clare Potter’s voice is assured and multi-faceted. She conjures powerful and sensuous images with apparent ease… manages beautifully cryptic moments… along with moments of startling aggression…
Richard Gwyn
This impressive debut collection includes poems on a wide range of themes: from memories of life in New Orleans, to recollections of a childhood in the south Wales valleys; from dark reflections on family life to quirky love poems. Crackling with wry humour, affection and defiance, it’s assertive, sensuous and evocative. Clare Potter is one of the most imaginative and persuasive new poets around.
Rachel Trezise
Clare Potter is a performance poet/ writer brought up in Blackwood, South Wales. She graduated from the University of Southern Mississippi with an MA in Afro–Caribbean literature. She then moved to New Orleans, where she was a consultant for the New Orleans Writing Project. On returning to Wales after ten years, Clare won the 2004 John Tripp Award for Spoken Poetry and her collection spilling histories was published (Cinnamon, 2006). In the last few years, Clare has been involved in collaborative projects with other writers, musicians, artists.