Glass is the debut poetry title from Emily Cooper, a writer and poet from Ireland. Cooper’s poetics masterfully create a compelling space that deliberately excludes wide views—instead bringing her pen up close to a dilapidated house in a small rural town with its own personality. The traces and presence of those who have existed in those spaces—real and imagined—become interdependent in the narrative. Rural, intimate, isolated and hospitable, she ponders the context of ownership of buildings in A fountain pen slices my leg through a bin bag as I move into my new house, and celebrates the old ones collapsing along with their social history. A tunnel of light, the vulnerability of garlic charcoaling in hot oil and the layering dust in-between floorboards are intercut with quiet moments of solitude, affection, disappointment and intimacy. Outside of these spaces of physical realities, there is a strong sense of affection for the enduring landscape of Donegal. Her poems are peppered with the idea of possibilities, of parallel lives and the potential for futures unknown and unseen.

‘Cooper is a poet of impressive deftness and idea’ — Jack Underwood

‘Emily Cooper’s voice shines with honesty and beauty’ — Francine Toon

‘Glass chronicles the quotidian making and unmaking of permanence with a deft, impressive touch.’ — Nidhi Zak/Aria Eipe

‘Formally inventive, engaging, and driven by a restless curiosity’ — Jessica Traynor