ALL THAT LIVES
CSI: POETRY of sex, death and pathology, both funny and
moving, tackles taboo subjects with cutting-edge science and rich sensuality. We trace the author’s personal journey from witnessing the deaths of loved ones, through residencies in pathology and neuroscience research institutes in her quest to understand the science of dying down to brain cell level,
encountering strange specimens and conditions. Concurrently, her rediscovery of modern sex and post-divorce dating brings hilarious, earthy life to an unflinching collection which has already won many prizes and distinctions. Published by Red Squirrel Press, available from them, or me, or on Kindle.
CSI: POETRY of sex, death and pathology, both funny and
moving, tackles taboo subjects with cutting-edge science and rich sensuality. We trace the author’s personal journey from witnessing the deaths of loved ones, through residencies in pathology and neuroscience research institutes in her quest to understand the science of dying down to brain cell level,
encountering strange specimens and conditions. Concurrently, her rediscovery of modern sex and post-divorce dating brings hilarious, earthy life to an unflinching collection which has already won many prizes and distinctions. Published by Red Squirrel Press, available from them, or me, or on Kindle.
REVIEWS & PRAISE FOR ALL THAT LIVES:
‘ ...ambitious lyric originality and the richness of its word-hoard as it gives a voice to
foetal specimens in their cold jars.’ Carol Ann Duffy, Mslexia, on Litter of Moons
‘The poems are extraordinary. Desire and dementia, the death of the brain and the life of the body jostle in All that Lives. These poems provoke thought, shock with sadness, and revive. They are alive.’ Alison Brackenbury.
‘Remarkable poems. Valerie Laws...dissects our relationships with the living, the demented and the dead with compassion, neuroanatomical detail, explicit eroticism and black humour.’
Susan Standring, editor of Gray’s Anatomy & Professor of Anatomy, KCL.
‘A poet brings a new vocabulary to pathological realities’ Graham P Mulley, British Medical
Journal
‘The Incredible Shrinking Brain begins as a poem that meditates on the memory of joy and passing years. Sequentially words fade from the poem...Almost unbearably moving’ Steven and Hilary Rose, in The Lancet. (see page for installation SLICING THE BRAIN)
‘Laws manages to be heartfelt without seeming overly sentimental, and is witty without being irreverent.’ The Economist
(see also SLICING THE BRAIN installation, and RESIDENCIES pages for more about the making of this and other publications and installations.)
‘ ...ambitious lyric originality and the richness of its word-hoard as it gives a voice to
foetal specimens in their cold jars.’ Carol Ann Duffy, Mslexia, on Litter of Moons
‘The poems are extraordinary. Desire and dementia, the death of the brain and the life of the body jostle in All that Lives. These poems provoke thought, shock with sadness, and revive. They are alive.’ Alison Brackenbury.
‘Remarkable poems. Valerie Laws...dissects our relationships with the living, the demented and the dead with compassion, neuroanatomical detail, explicit eroticism and black humour.’
Susan Standring, editor of Gray’s Anatomy & Professor of Anatomy, KCL.
‘A poet brings a new vocabulary to pathological realities’ Graham P Mulley, British Medical
Journal
‘The Incredible Shrinking Brain begins as a poem that meditates on the memory of joy and passing years. Sequentially words fade from the poem...Almost unbearably moving’ Steven and Hilary Rose, in The Lancet. (see page for installation SLICING THE BRAIN)
‘Laws manages to be heartfelt without seeming overly sentimental, and is witty without being irreverent.’ The Economist
(see also SLICING THE BRAIN installation, and RESIDENCIES pages for more about the making of this and other publications and installations.)
