A stunning new collection from Edinburgh City Libraries' former Poet in Residence and current Artistic Director of StAnza, Scotland's International Poetry Festival. In his latest collection, Ryan Van Winkle uses photographs to access themes of abandonment, generational incomprehension and the very notion of how we end up where we are. This collection is a poetic photo album. Through these poems, Van Winkle looks at life through a lens – to get closer – to meditate on the anxieties and insecurities of a life. He reckons with how we remember and misremember, and how memories and people can be difficult, and at times painful, to hold on to. In reading this collection it becomes clear that while photographs can be carefully ordered, the emotions and impressions surrounding them cannot. ‘Poems to return to again and again, like a box of photographs carried with you from house to house, country to country, life to life’ –Peter Mackay, Scotland’s Makar 'An exceptional collection; poems that unfold and draw you inward to a place where only language, held gently and confidently, can lead you’ –William Letford 'Rich, vivid, surprising and beautifully crafted, Van Winkle catalogues a life in still imagery, both haunting and inspiring; a book of warm ghosts. In doing so he turns us all into boxes in back bedrooms. Stunning’ –Joelle Taylor
