Carcanet Press Logo
Quote of the Day
an admirable concern to keep lines open to writing in Ireland, Scotland, Wales and America.
Seamus Heaney

Arguing with Malarchy

Carola Luther

Arguing With Malarchy
10% off eBook (EPUB)
Categories: 21st Century, LGBTQ+, Women
Imprint: Carcanet Poetry
Publisher: Carcanet Press
Available as:
Paperback (80 pages)
(Pub. Jul 2011)
9781847770936
Out of Stock
eBook (EPUB) Needs ADE!
(Pub. Jul 2011)
9781847778871
£9.95 £8.96
Digital access available through Exact Editions
To use the EPUB version, you will need to have Adobe Digital Editions (ADE) installed on your device. You can find out more at https://www.adobe.com/uk/solutions/ebook/digital-editions.html. Please do not purchase this version if you do not have and are not prepared to install, Adobe Digital Editions.
  • Description
  • Excerpt
  • Author
  • Awards
  • Reviews
  • And all the while the old-fashioned business
    of ordinary fury and the stubbornness of love
    could be said to be moving
    through our conversations,
    as if these were our labouring fingers
    drawing imaginary thread through the unnamed
    and invisible fabrics of the sky...

                           from ‘Making Peace’

    Arguing with Malarchy is full of voices. Tender, sinister, sad or cantankerous, they compel us to attend to their realities, the glimpsed depths of their stories, the distances they have travelled. Carola Luther’s poems are alert to the ways a life can be briefly snared in the turn of a phrase – or in the moment when language fails. She explores silences, absences, the unspoken communication between animals and human beings, the living and the dead, and the boundaries between what is remembered, forgotten or invented.

    In the book’s first part, a chronicle of mourning creates ‘the bare threads of tunes’ out of what is lost, and begins a new story. In the second part, Luther’s characters live in their language; ‘Keep talking,’ the old man tells Malarchy. We travel through elemental landscapes of sea and sky, shadows and wide savannahs that exist beyond language and sustain when words are silenced.

    Cover photograph Copyright © Sheila Tilmouth


    Carola Luther ’s most recent collection On the Way to Jerusalem Farm was published by Carcanet Press in September 2021, and has been shortlisted for the 2022 Derek Walcott Prize for Poetry. Her two earlier collections, Walking the Animals (2004) and Arguing with Malarchy (2011) were also published by Carcanet Press. ... read more
    Awards won by Carola Luther Short-listed, 2022 The Derek Walcott Prize for Poetry (On the Way to Jerusalem Farm)
    Praise for Carola Luther 'Using rhyme, half-rhyme, the possibility of rhyme she creates a poetic rhythm which is extraordinary - as natural as a heartbeat and, in terms of pace, these are poems that take their time. There's no need to rush, no pressure and, as you read them you feel you're in strong and capable hands.'

    Hilary Hares, The High Window

    'Luther's powers of description make this book a joy to read, with evocative and fresh images... These exquisite images are however grounded in reality: even when the agony of loss lessens and colour returns.'

    Mary Mulholland, The Alchemy Spoon

You might also be interested in:
Cover of Walking the Animals
Walking the Animals Carola Luther
Cover of Child
Child Mimi Khalvati
Share this...
The Carcanet Blog Near-Life Experience: Rowland Bagnall read more The Silence: Gillian Clarke read more Baby Schema: Isabel Galleymore read more The Iron Bridge: Rebecca Hurst read more Sleepers Awake: Oli Hazzard read more The Miraculous Season: V.R. 'Bunny' Lang, edited by Rosa Campbell read more
Find your local bookshop logo
Arts Council Logo
We thank the Arts Council England for their support and assistance in this interactive Project.
This website ©2000-2024 Carcanet Press Ltd